Iraq Says It Shoots Down US Spy PlaneIraqi air defense forces on Monday shot down a U.S. reconnaissance plane flying over Iraq's southern Basra Province, an Iraqi military spokesman said.In a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the spokesman said that the U.S. plane, coming from Kuwait, was shot down when it was spying over the Basra Province in southern Iraq. However, the spokesman did not disclose the model of the plane, nor where it crashed. "The plane, which is very advanced and carries high-tech equipment, was used by the U.S. in its aggressions against Yugoslavia (in 1998)," the spokesman added. Iraq has often announced that its anti-aircraft artillery hit or even shot down U.S. and British planes flying over the two no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq, a claim firmly rejected by the U.S. and Britain. Iraq announced earlier this month that it would beef up its anti-aircraft defenses to bring down allied planes enforcing the two no-fly zones. The U.S. and British planes have raided the zones several times this month to retaliate against Iraq's stepped-up efforts to shoot down a coalition plane. The air exclusion zones were set up by the U.S.-led Western allies after the 1991 Gulf War with the claimed aim of protecting the Kurds in the north and Shiite Muslims in the south from the persecution of the Iraqi government. Iraq does not recognize the zones and has regularly fired at U. S. and British aircrafts patrolling them. |
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