4 Americans among nine dead in Iraq plane crash: Governor murdered
BAGHDAD, May 31: Four Americans, four Italians and an Iraqi were killed when an Iraqi Air Force plane went down in eastern Iraq on Monday, a spokesman for Iraq’s Defence Ministry confirmed on Tuesday. The plane, a six-seater Comp Air turbo-prop usually used for reconnaissance, went down near the town of Jalawla, 150kms northeast of Baghdad, near the Iranian border. It is believed to have crashed in a sandstorm, the spokesman said.
“All five on board were killed — an American and an Iraqi officer and three other Americans,” he said. The US military in Baghdad said it had no further information beyond a statement it released late on Monday saying an aircraft with four US military personnel and an Iraqi on board had crashed in eastern Iraq.
It is believed to be the first Iraqi Air Force plane to have crashed since the Air Force was re-established in April 2004, following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The new Iraqi Air Force has a small fleet of surveillance planes, several C-130 transporters and more than a dozen helicopters.
Kidnapped governor found dead: The governor of Iraq’s biggest province, who was kidnapped earlier this month, has been found dead along with his militant captors after a clash with US forces, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. Laith Kubba told a news conference the body of Anbar governor Raja Nawaf was found tied to a gas canister in a house near the town of Rawa two days ago.
He was discovered after US forces conducted a routine sweep through a neighbourhood and met fierce resistance from insurgents in the house. The authorities do not know how Nawaf died but it was likely that concrete fell on him after the clashes triggered explosives in the house, Kubba said.
Nawaf and four bodyguards were kidnapped on the road from the town of Qaim near the Syrian border to the city of Ramadi just days after he became governor of Anbar, the heartland of Iraq’s insurgency. Officials and relatives said they were kidnapped by militants loyal to the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, because of a dispute with Nawaf’s tribe.
Zarqawi, whose followers from across the Arab world are waging a war against the Iraqi government and its American allies, have assassinated officials and mounted suicide bombings that have killed hundreds. Kubba said the bodies of two Syrians, one Jordanian and an Algerian were found beside Nawaf after the fighting.
His kidnapping and death highlighted the security challenge facing Iraqi forces who are struggling to tame Anbar, home to some of the country’s fiercest Muslim militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists. A US-led offensive captured the rebel stronghold of Falluja in Anbar in November, raising hopes that the assault would significantly weaken the insurgency.—Reuters
