Iraq says it shot down another Iranian drone

Agence France Presse

March 25, 2000

BAGHDAD, March 25 - Iraq said Saturday its air defences shot down an Iranian pilotless plane near the border with Iran for the second time in less than two weeks, as Baghdad held a mass protest against a mortar attack blamed on Tehran.

The air defences chief, quoted by Iraq's official news agency INA, said the drone was shot down on Friday over the Al-Azair region of Missan province, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The Iraqi military has said it also downed an Iranian drone on March 13, in the Khanaqin region east of the capital. Tehran has neither confirmed nor denied the report.

Iraq blamed Iran for a mortar attack on Tuesday that killed four people and injured 38 others in Baghdad in apparent retaliation for a similar strike in Tehran claimed by Iran's armed opposition, which is based in Iraq.

But Iran, which fought a 1980-1988 war against Iraq, denied it was involved. "These explosions are the result of Iraq's internal problems and have nothing to do with Iran," a foreign ministry official said.

The official deplored "such subversive acts" and warned Baghdad "not to fall into the propaganda trap of some foreign media which are seeking to create problems between the two countries."

INA said an estimated 200,000 Iraqis and other Arabs staged a demonstration in Baghdad on Saturday to protest at the "cowardly" attack which hit a residential area of the capital. They burnt US and Israeli flags.

Two Iraqis and two Palestinians were killed in the attack.

Iran's main armed opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, claimed responsibility for a similar mortar attack in Tehran on March 13 and said Tehran was making reconnaissance flights to retaliate against its bases in Iraq.

The United States on Friday said Baghdad had spent tens of millions of dollars on building a Mujahedeen base west of the Iraqi capital. The group swiftly denied the allegation, saying the money was its own.

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