U.S. Jet Fires After Iraqi Radar Locks Onto It

A U.S. Air Force warplane on Saturday night fired at an antiaircraft missile site in southern Iraq after the missile radar locked onto the American plane, the Pentagon said.

Air Force Lt. Col. Dave Garner, a Pentagon spokesman, said an antiaircraft missile was apparently fired later from an Iraqi missile site at two other U.S. jets. All three jets returned undamaged, he said.

The incident occurred in a “no-fly” zone over southern Iraq. There was no immediate assessment of damage by the HARM missile fired by the U.S. F-4G jet at the Iraqi site, Garner said.

It was the second such incident in southern Iraq in a month. Another F-4G launched a missile at an Iraqi antiaircraft artillery radar near Basra on June 29.