Iraq 'inquires' about Pentagon missile report

By Jamie McIntyre
CNN Military Affairs Correspondent

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A senior Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his government was inquiring into a Pentagon statement that Iraq fired a missile at a U.S. plane as it flew in Kuwaiti airspace.

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If true, the incident would mark the first time Iraq has fired into Kuwaiti airspace since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Iraqi air defenses fire regularly at the U.S. and British aircraft that maintain air exclusion zones in the northern and southern parts of Iraq. Baghdad says the zones have no legal basis; the U.S. and Britain say the exclusion zones are necessary to protect Iraqi ethnic groups that Baghdad has supressed in the past.

The Iraq official neither denied nor confirmed the Pentagon statement that a missile was fired toward a U.S. E2-C surveillance aircraft flying several miles inside Kuwait on Thursday. The Pentagon said the "Hawkeye" surveillance aircraft was on routine patrol when it observed a plume and then an explosion in the air about a mile away.

Based on the pilot's report, the United States believes Iraq fired a surface-to-air missile at the unarmed plane.

There was no targeting-radar detected by the U.S. plane, so it appears the missile was fired "ballistically," that is, without the benefit of any guidance system.

Iraq "will inquire about the incident," the Iraqi official said.