BBC News Online: World: Middle East

Iraq 'shoots down US plane'

Iraq claimed a similar "kill" last month

The official Iraqi News Agency (INA) said the plane was brought down near the port city of Basra.

Maj. Brett Morris, spokesman for a US-British military task force in the Persian Gulf, told the Associated Press the coalition force had lost an unmanned aircraft on Tuesday similar to a US spy plane lost last month.

INA said the plane was shot down at 1130 local time (0730 GMT) and wreckage from the "highly advanced" plane was being collected.

The news agency quoted an unnamed Iraqi Air Defence Command official as saying: "The plane was coming from Kuwaiti territory and it was used to provide the American enemy with information concerning our installations, vital sites and our air-defence formations."

Second plane shot down

If confirmed, it will be the second US spy plane shot down in Iraq in the past two weeks.

Iraq said its forces shot down an unmanned Predator plane in the Basra area, 560 kilometres (350 miles) south of Baghdad on 27 August.

The US Defense Department acknowledged losing a plane at that time but did not confirm the circumstances.

The United States and Britain frequently fly sorties over no-fly zones over north and south Iraq, imposed after the Gulf War.

Iraq refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the zones and has stepped up efforts to shoot down allied planes over the past few months.