WASHINGTON, April 3: Iraq shot down a US Navy F/A-18 Hornet with a surface-to-air missile, military officials said.
There was no immediate word on the fate of the pilot. A statement from US Central Command said the plane went down at 2045 GMT on Wednesday.
It was the first American aeroplane shot down during the war on Iraq. Iraq on Wednesday shot down an Army helicopter and have downed several pilotless surveillance drones.
Navy and Marine pilots fly the F/A-18 Hornet from aircraft carriers. The supersonic jets are armed with a 20mm cannon and cancarry a wide range of bombs and missiles.
HELICOPTER: Investigations were underway on Thursday into the cause of a US Army Blackhawk helicopter crash in Iraq amid conflicting reports by the Pentagon and US Central Command.
Officials at the Central Command’s forward planning base here said there were a number of casualties among the soldiers on board but the crash was not believed to have been the result of Iraqi fire.
“The investigation on that is ongoing. We believe we do have some casualties as a result of that. We do not believe it was from enemy fire,” Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters.
A Defence Department official in Washington earlier said there were 11 people on board and “preliminary reports say seven were killed”.—AFP/APP
