Iraq strikes back at Iran

NICOSIA — Iraq struck back at Iran, downing an unmanned air vehicle patrolling over border positions. Iraqi officials said an air defense unit blasted the UAV in a border area about 400 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. An Iraqi military spokesman quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency said the UAV was coming from Iran on Thursday afternoon in the region of Mendali.

Earlier, Iraq pledged to retaliate in wake of an Iranian missile attack on Wednesday. Iraqi officials said Iran fired 56 Scud missiles at Iraqi and Baghdad-based opposition positions in the area of Basra as well as northeast of Baghdad.

On Thursday, Iran acknowledged the missile attack. In a letter to the United Nations Security Council, Teheran termed the attack as a proportionate response to repeated Iraqi-sponsored attacks on Teheran and other Iranian cities.

The letter by Teheran's envoy to the UN, Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian, said Iran's military launched attacks against Mujahadeen headquarters as well as the organization's surveillance, training and logistics centers located in Iraqi territory.

"Iran underlines that these limited and appropriate operations were aimed at halting the attacks against Iran launched by the Munafeqin [Mujahadeen] with Baghdad's support from inside Iraqi soil, and should not be interpreted as a measure against Iraq's territorial integrity," the letter, quoted by the official Iranian news agency, said.

Iraq supports the Iranian opposition Mujahadeen Khalq, which has claimed responsibility for more than a dozen recent mortar attacks in the Teheran area.