Iraq said on Monday its upgraded air defences had shot down a US spy plane over southern Iraq.
The US military confirmed that a US$3.3 million unmanned RQ-1B Predator aircraft had gone missing over Iraq and may have crashed or been shot down while operating to enforce a "no fly" zone over much of the country's south.
It said the Predator was the first plane of its kind to be lost over Iraq.
The loss of the Predator was a significant morale boost for Baghdad, which considers Western sorties over its territory unlawful aggression aided and financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
"The air defences in the Basra area shot down the plane when it was flying a spy mission inside Iraqi airspace," an Iraqi military spokesman said.
Iraqi television aired video footage of what it described as the wreckage of the US plane scattered over the desert near the port of Basra, 480 km (300 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The footage showed an aircraft engine, mangled wires and communication boxes with the inscriptions "property of the USAF" and "US Navy prop".
"This was an advanced plane which the Americans used during their aggression on Yugoslavia," the spokesman told the Iraqi News Agency, adding that the plane had been shot down at 0445 GMT on Monday after it crossed into Iraq from Kuwait.
Kuwait denied the aircraft had flown from its territory.
"Our air defences have been modernised to confront the planes of aggression, which was admitted by US officials," the Iraqi military spokesman said.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said the Predator was identifying Iraqi targets to prepare for air raids that already killed 353 civilians since the no-fly zones were carved 10 years ago.
"Whether manned or not, this is a form of aggression that is not allowed under international law," Sabri told CNN.
"We shall be steadfast in our confrontation to their (US and British) aggression," the minister said.
The Iraqi spokesman said one Iraqi civilian was killed and three others were wounded in a separate incursion on Monday by US and British warplanes over northern Iraq.
A spokesman for US European Command based in Germany confirmed that Western planes had attacked "military targets" north of Mosul after coming under fire during a routine patrol of a northern "no-fly" zone. A British Defence Ministry spokesman said no British planes were involved.
NATIONAL JOY
In the air strike in north Iraq, Baghdad said the western planes targeted infrastructure facilities in Duhouk, Arbeil, and Nineveh provinces.
US and British planes launched two similar attacks this month against what Washington described as an upgraded Iraqi air defence network. Baghdad said the attacks were on infrastructure targets, causing civilian deaths and injuries.
Iraqis were ecstatic over the US loss of a Predator. Most have developed deep hatred for the United States after living for 11 years under an economic embargo imposed by the United Nations after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Iraqi forces were driven out after seven months by a US-led multinational force.
"This is a good omen. A piloted aircraft -- God willing -- will be next in line," said Halim, a taxi driver.
Official media refer to Western planes, which regularly police two "no-fly zones" in northern and southern Iraq, as "the crows of evil".
No pilots have been lost since the no-fly zones were set up in 1991 to protect Kurdish and Shi'ite populations from what Washington describes as threat of attack from the Iraqi army.
In late July, US defence officials said the Iraqi military had come close to hitting a high-altitude U-2 spy plane with a modified Russian-made anti-aircraft missile.
(Chinadaily.com.cn 08/28/2001)
