Iraqi fighter shoots down American drone in no-fly zone

1.00pm - By DAVID USBORNE

NEW YORK - Tensions in the Persian Gulf intensified today when an Iraqi fighter plane penetrated the no-fly zone over the southern tier of the country and successfully shot down an American unmanned surveillance drone.

The Iraqi action, the first downing of a US aircraft since the United Nations adopted a resolution giving Baghdad its last chance to disarm, was confirmed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, Richard Myers.

"They got a lucky shot today, and they brought down the predator," he said.

The US Central Command meanwhile gave its own confirmation of the loss of the drone.

"This action is the latest chapter in a lengthy list of hostile acts by the Iraqi regime," said Jim Wilkinson, a Central Command spokesman. "This is the first aircraft that we've had that's been shot down in the no-fly zone" since the UN Security Council authorised the new inspection effort on 8 November, he added.

The no-fly zones over Iraq, set up after the 1991 Gulf War, are patrolled by British and American warplanes and there have been at least 30 attacks by the Iraqis since November 8. In May, Iraq said its air defences had forced an unmanned reconnaissance plan on a mission over northern Iraq to land, and in October, 2001 Iraq boasted of shooting down a Predator. Today's incident however caused alarm because most of Iraq's attacks on British and American warplanes come from surface-to air-missiles rather than Saddam's fighter aircraft.

General Myers was careful, however, not to describe the incident as necessarily ratcheting up the Iraqi crisis or pushing Washington any closer to declaring war on the regime of Saddam Hussein. "I do not see it as an escalation," he said.

The NZ$7.2 million drone was reportedly conducting a routine reconnaissance mission, part of the hunt for sites producing weapons of mass destruction.

As weapons inspectors from the United Nations again fanned out across Iraq in the search for evidence of weapons of mass destruction today, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke for the first time of starting one-on-one interviews with Iraqi scientists.

"We are now, I think, in the process of interviewing people inside Iraq in private...but we are also working on the practical arrangements to take people out of Iraq," Mohamed El Baradei commented.

He indicated, however, that the interviews were still preliminary in nature and that more work has to be done identifying potential interviewees and weighing the risks of extracting them from Iraq for debriefing.

"We have first, however, to identify those who are willing to cooperate with us, those who have critical information that will enable us to succeed," Mr El Baradei remarked.

"We need to be concerned about their safety either providing them asylum, or, if they decide to go back, that their safety and their families are secure."

Washington has been pushing hard in recent days for inspectors to focus on identifying scientists who may have information to trip up Saddam, who continues to insist that his country is free of prohibited weapons. Sources in New York said, however, that Mr El Baradei's opposite number at the UN, Hans Blix, is still some way from beginning that process.

While Mr Blix already has his own private list of Iraqis that may be useful in providing information, he is currently awaiting a second list that Baghdad has promised to provide to him by 31 December. He is unlikely therefore to give the green light for any interviews before the New Year.

UN inspectors swooped yesterday on three sites near Baghdad including one that Iraq says is a baby milk factory which was bombed by the Allies during the 1991 Gulf War as the alleged site of a biological weapons factory. At the rebuilt factory, plant director Youssef Nouri Taher said inspectors asked about raw materials and the production process. Iraqi officials said the plant is not now producing milk but could if machinery sealed by UN inspectors was unsealed.

Washington is meanwhile trying to downplay concerns that a new crisis over moves by North Korea to reactivate its nuclear weapons programme might deflect the focus on Iraq. North Korea has removed seals and international monitoring equipment from its nuclear facilities, prompting alarm that it is moving to develop nuclear weapons.

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Herald feature: Iraq