Clicking a targeted anchor tag set to "_blank" within an mx or Spark text component opens an extra window in IE8

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a Flex app (or compile the attached source) that displays a link targeted to "_blank" in an htmlText compatible component such as mx:Text, s:RichEditableText, or s:TextArea:

<fx:String id="htmlCode"><![CDATA[<p>Here is a <a href="http://www.google.com" target="_blank"><u>targeted link.</u></a></p>]]
></fx:String>

<mx:Text id="mxText" condenseWhite="true" htmlText="

" width="100%"/>

2. Create an HTML page with a link that launches the Flex app in a new window:

<a href="flexLinkTest.html" target="_blank">Launch in New Window</a>

3. Post the compiled code to a web server and load the launch page created in Step 2.

4. Click on the link to launch the Flex app in a new window.

Actual Results:

Clicking the link targeted to "_blank" in the Flex app opens the intended site in a new window, but also opens a blank window. All links, regardless of the target (including "_self" and untargeted links) open in a new window, but without the extra blank window. Clicking on the browser's home button opens the homepage in a new window from this point forward as well. This only appears to happen in IE8 after launching the Flex application in a new window and when running from a web server (i.e. it does not happen locally). I'm running IE v8.0.7600.16385.

Expected Results:

Clicking a targeted link should open the link in the specified target window without opening an extra window. Untargeted links should open in the same window.

Workaround (if any):

I was not able to find a workaround.