Iran says foreign planes violated its air space

According to the Los Angeles Times, Iran says that unidentified foreign planes violated its air space six times as the country began an air defense exercise, but that they were intercepted and forced back by Iranian jets.

The remarks by Gen. Hamid Arjangi, a spokesman for the exercise, are the first Iranian claim of an intrusion. His comments were carried on Wednesday by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Initially, he had only said that foreign planes had approached Iran's air space.

Arjangi says Iran's radar stations and observation posts reported six cases of foreign planes entering Iranian air space during the exercise.

The five-day drill, which started on Tuesday, is meant to showcase Iran's capabilities in defending its nuclear facilities from possible attack.