"Iraqi missile batteries and ground defenses confronted enemy warplanes" which staged "24 armed sorties" over some 20 localities of southern Iraq at noon (0900 GMT), "forcing them to flee to their bases in Kuwait," the spokesman said, quoted by the official INA news agency.

Baghdad said its aircraft and anti-aircraft artillery shot down an unmanned US spy plane over the south of the country Monday.

US military officials confirmed Iraqi aircraft shot down a Predator drone in a "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq where US and British aircraft have stepped up attacks in recent weeks.

Iraqi aircraft are supposedly barred from the "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq. But Baghdad does not recognize the zones, patrolled by US and British aircraft since the end of the 1991 Gulf War without being sanctioned by any UN resolution.

In recent weeks, the patrols have resulted in almost daily clashes with Iraqi air defenses on the ground as Washington and London step up enforcement of the zones ahead of a possible US-led invasion, but air-to-air encounters are rare.

SPACE.WIRE