Iraqi air defense claims it fired at American, British planes

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq said its air defense units fired at raiding American and British warplanes Tuesday. But the Pentagon denied the account, saying that no Iraqi attack was detected.

The official Iraqi News Agency said warplanes flying from bases in Turkey carried out 16 sorties in the northern "no fly zone." Warplanes taking off from bases in Kuwait carried out 29 sorties over areas in southern Iraq, the agency said.

But Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Lapan in Washington questioned the Iraqi report, saying that no Iraqi attack was detected in either no-fly zone on Tuesday. Coalition aircraft did not fly over the northern zone Tuesday, and patrols over the southern zone were unhindered, he said.

The no-fly zones were set up in the past decade to protect Kurds in the north and Shiites Muslims in the south from Iraqi government forces. Iraq does not recognize the zones and routinely challenges the U.S. and British aircraft patrolling them.