Two Americans killed; two planes downed in Baghdad and Musil, 700 former Iraqi soldiers go after Baathists
Two American soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Musil, where the resistance started to concentrate its attacks against the occupation forces in that city.
The American forces lost two planes in two incidents, one of which was confirmed to be a result of an attack by missiles, while the second, according to the occupation forces, as result of technical problems.
Officials in the Pentagon said yesterday that an American C-17 military plane was hit yesterday by ground-to-air missile, minutes after it took off from Baghdad airport. A matter which obliged it to land immediately, and this resulted in wounding its 16 passengers.
In Musil, a spokesman for the American airborne 101 contingent said that an Apache plane was obliged to land, to the south of the city, after fire erupted in one of its engines because of technical problems, denying that it was exposed to an attack or the incident to have resulted in casualties. The plane was carrying only two passengers.
The US army said that one of its soldiers was killed, and other three wounded, when a bomb went off, implanted on the road in Musil, when an American vehicle was running on it. An American spokesman said a fire exchange from light weapons against the Americans followed the explosions, and the American forces killed one member in the Kurdish militia al-Bashmarka. The attack took place hours after bullets were fired on American soldiers guarding a Benzene station in Musil, and this resulted in killing one and wounding another.
In another accident, one American soldier was killed and other three wounded when a mine went off on a road side in Musil where an American vehicle was running. Then, the American soldiers opened fire immediately at the passerby, and killed a 19 year old young man, and wounded his father and mother who were walking with him in the street.
One Iraqi was killed in Musil, in a bomb explosion he wanted to implant on a road trodden by the American vehicles, in the downtown of the city, according to witnesses.
In the town of Riyadh, to the west of Karkouk, an American spokesman said that the occupation forces arrested yesterday 14 Iraqis, including two former officers in the Iraqi army, suspected to be among the resistance leaders in the area, adding that large amounts of money and weapons were found with the two men.
Meantime, a source in the National Reconciliation Movement led by Eyad Allawi, said that the special Iraqi unit in charge of chasing Baathist officials is composed of 700 members, with most of them members in the former Iraqi army. The source explained that work started to form the committee in the framework of "transferring the security file from the hands of the coalition to the Iraqis."
