March 30, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 26, 1424

ANKARA, March 29: Villagers in southeastern Turkey on Saturday pelted a team of US experts with eggs and stones when they turned up to investigate the crash of a cruise missile, fired at Iraq, but which landed in Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The missile, which crashed half a kilometer (a quarter of a mile) from the small village of Buyukmurdes in the province of Sanliurfa on Friday, was the third US cruise missile to malfunction and fall in the region in less than a week.

Angry villagers broke several windows of the four vehicles carrying the experts and chanted anti-war slogans before Turkish paramilitary gendarmerie troops stepped in, the agency said.

The Sanliurfa region, which lies along the border with Syria and some 300 kilometres away from the border with Iraq, is mainly populated by Arabs, but also has Turkish and Kurdish communities.

Two soldiers were put on duty in front of every house in Buyukmurdes to prevent further incidents until the experts collected the pieces of the missile which landed in a grain field.

The US team gave the owner of the field 2,000 dollars in compensation for the damage, Anatolia said.

US officials have also paid out 3,600 dollars in compensation to five farmers for the two Tomahawk cruise missiles which accidentally crashed into the Sanliurfa region on March 23.

One of the missiles landed near the small village of Ozveren, and the second crashed some 200 kilometers away.

“The Americans gave me and two others 1,000 dollars each, and 300 dollars each to two others,” the head of the Ozveren village told the Anatolia news agency.

“Our damage was actually much more, but we accepted the amount not to let this business drag on,” he added.—AFP