BAGHDAD/NEW YORK, 24 December 2002 — Tensions intensified yesterday after an Iraqi fighter plane penetrated the no-fly zone over the southern tier of the country and successfully shot down an American unmanned surveillance drone.

The Iraqi action, the first downing of a US aircraft since the United Nations adopted a resolution giving Baghdad its last chance to disarm, was confirmed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, Richard Myers. “They got a lucky shot today, and they brought down the Predator,” he said.

An Iraqi military spokesman said in Baghdad that the Predator, flying in from a base in Kuwait, breached Iraqi airspace while on a spying mission.

“With God’s help, and with the will of the men of our heroic air defense forces and brave sky eagles, it was shot down in a delicate and planned operation,” the statement said, adding that the plane was downed at 3.35 p.m. (1235 GMT).

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said the United States is building up forces “to a level fit for a world war” against the Arab nation. “This is a strategic buildup for a war reaching the level of a world war and targeting ... the entire Arab nation,” he told an Afro-Asian solidarity meeting with Iraq.

Some 65,000 US troops are currently deployed in the Gulf and 50,000 more are expected to be sent to the region as Washington threatens to attack Iraq on the grounds that it still has weapons of mass destruction.

Another Iraqi official said Arab and European volunteers would arrive soon to act as human shields to guard vital and strategic installations from US attacks.

In London, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed El-Baradei said yesterday weapons inspectors had started privately talking to Iraqi experts and were trying to identify the scientists who wanted to leave. “We’re now I think in the process of interviewing people inside Iraq in private. This is something new,” El-Baradei told CNN.

“We have now the authority to interview people in private inside Iraq. But we’re also working on the practical arrangements to take people out of Iraq. The IAEA chief said the agency was in “intense” talks with several countries to arrange safe passage for those experts who need it. “Once we have these requirements in place we are absolutely ready to use that authority to move our mandate forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, UN experts carried out a 24th day of inspections yesterday visiting a factory making powdered milk for babies twice bombed by US warplanes.

In another development, the UN refugee agency said yesterday it was gearing up for a possible conflict in the Gulf by pre-positioning additional stocks of relief supplies in the Middle East, amid fears of a mass exodus from Iraq.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said relief agencies had asked an unspecified number of donor countries for $37.4 million in emergency funding to cover contingency planning for Iraq, during a meeting in Geneva on Dec. 13.

Citing “confidential UN planning papers” in New York, British newspaper, The Times, reported earlier that the UN was preparing to help about 900,000 refugees in case of a US-led conflict, which was likely to shatter Iraq’s infrastructure. (The Independent)