STORM2K

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar — U.S. warplanes destroyed a two-story building in the besieged Iraqi city of Basra where some 200 Iraqi paramilitary fighters were believed to be meeting Friday, the U.S. military said.

There was no immediate word on casualties from the attack by a pair of F-15E Strike Eagles, targeting the Saddam Hussein loyalists who British officials say have clamped down on a restive population in Basra.

Earlier Friday, the paramilitaries -- known as "Saddam's Fedayeen" -- fired mortars and machine guns on about 1,000 Iraqi civilians trying to leave the southern city, British military officials and witnesses said.

British forces surround the city -- Iraq's second-largest, with a population of 1.3 million -- and want to open the way for badly needed humanitarian aid. But they have yet to move in, facing what would likely by tough street-by-street resistance from the militiamen.

Friday night's airstrike went after what Central Command called "an emerging target." The two warplanes fired laser-guided munitions fitted with delayed fuses -- meaning they penetrated the building before detonating to minimize the external blast effect. The Central Command statement said a church 300 yards from the two-story building was undamaged.