IRAQ: U.S. OFFICIALS SAY THEY HAVE NO INFORMATION THAT A U.S. PLANE HAS BEEN SHOT DOWN OVER BAGHDAD

Record ID: 645856

  • Title: IRAQ: U.S. OFFICIALS SAY THEY HAVE NO INFORMATION THAT A U.S. PLANE HAS BEEN SHOT DOWN OVER BAGHDAD
  • Date: 25th March 2003
  • Summary: (W5) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MARCH 23, 2003) (REUTERS) SLV IRAQIS CELEBRATING
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4EHYIE5ZY5P71ODBWO7BRC38P
  • Story Text: U.S. officials have said they have no information that a plane from the U.S.-led forces had been shot down over Baghdad as Iraqi troops fired at unidentified targets in the Tigris river in an apparent search for ejected pilots.
    A U.S. Central Command spokesman on Sunday (March 23, 2003) denied television reports that aircraft had been shot down and U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had no information that two Western pilots had been forced to abandon their plane over Baghdad.
    Citing Iraqi sources, the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera said two pilots had parachuted out of their plane and hidden in reeds on the banks of the Tigris. The sources said one pilot had been caught and one was still missing.
    Iraqi TV also announced that one of the pilots had been detained.
    Asked about missing planes, Rumsfeld told NBC television: "There has been a report of an aircraft that's missing." But it was not clear whether he was referring to the reports that a plane was down over Baghdad.
    Iraq has said it shot down five planes and two helicopters. British officials confirmed that a British Tornado jet was shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile on Sunday in the first reported incident of "friendly fire" since the war began.
    Television reports showed Iraqi soldiers shooting into the Tigris river and in boats, apparently searching the water for pilots. Smoke rose from a fire on the riverbank as hundreds of Baghdad residents looked on.
    "Central Command denies any coalition aircraft were shot down over Baghdad," the spokesman at Central Command forward headquarters outside Qatar told Reuters.
    General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had checked before appearing on ABC television and stated, "All planes are reported safe at this point."
    "We have nothing to substantiate that claim by the Iraqis that any pilot has bailed out of his airplane over Baghdad."
    The British Ministry of Defence referred all queries to the Qatar headquarters of the invasion force, saying it had no news of any lost pilots.
    Meanwhile, Iraqi television showed pictures of men waving rifles and chanting their support to Saddam Hussein as they stood in an open field in Iraq around what looked like a broken missile that they said had been downed. It was not immediately clear when or where the images were recorded.
    Earlier, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said that enemy soldiers captured at the southern town of Souq al-Shuyukh would soon be shown on state television.
    Souq al-Shuyukh is southeast of the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya, where U.S. Marines have reported resistance on their northward sweep from Kuwait. Myers said some Americans, fewer than 10, were missing in southern Iraq.
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