Iraq intercepts American, British planes

An Iraqi military spokesman has announced that the Iraqi anti aircraft means on Thursday evening intercepted American and British planes while flying over south Iraq and "forced them to flee away."

News reports said that the spokesman explained that number of the American and British formations backed by AWACS planes carried out 26 armed sorties over al-Basseyah, al-Salman, Ashbaja, al-Jaleiba and al-Nasereyah to the south of Iraq. He added that the Iraqi anti aircraft means intercepted them and forced them to flee away.

The spokesman stressed that total air sorties of the American and British planes over north and south Iraq reached 37.54 armed sorties since December 1998.