By Hassan Hafidh
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq denied on Saturday that its anti-aircraft defenses had fired a missile at a U.S. U-2 spy plane, saying that U.S. officials wanted to create a pretext for a fresh military attack against Iraq.
``Our air defenses fired a missile against an American F-15 warplane, not a U-2 spy plane as claimed by the Americans,'' an official spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency INA.
``The missile was fired at 22:53 hours local time (1853 GMT) on July 24 while American and British planes were flying over the southern region,'' the spokesman said.
``The aim of recent American claims is to create pretexts for launching fresh air attacks on our radar and air defenses systems,'' the spokesman said.
He said Iraqi anti-aircraft defenses would continue to intercept U.S. and British planes patrolling no-fly zones above Iraq.
President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) told his anti-aircraft soldiers to keep on surprising the United States and improving their weapons in the fight against U.S. and British planes patrolling the no-fly zones.
INA said Saddam had called on his fighters to use the ''surprise'' tactics against the ``enemy,'' in a clear reference to the United States. ``Any new method you employ against the enemy would surprise him,'' he said.
President Bush (news - web sites) said on Thursday that Saddam was ``still a menace'' and added the United States would keep up pressure on him.
Senior U.S. defense officials in Washington told Reuters that the Iraqi missile just missed the unarmed, single-seat U-2. One said the pilot felt a shock wave and the close call was a surprise because the missile, believed to be a SAM-2 modified with extra fuel, was apparently fired without the use of targeting radar.
U.S. and British warplanes have been patrolling the no-fly zones since the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). The zones, which Baghdad does not recognize, were imposed to protect Shiite Muslims in the south and a Kurdish enclave in the north from possible attack by Baghdad forces.
Washington and London say that no allied aircraft have been lost, although the Iraqi military has repeatedly fired anti- aircraft guns and missiles at the warplanes, which have responded by dropping bombs and firing missiles at Iraqi air defense sites.