BAGHDAD, March 16: US jets shot down an Iranian unmanned surveillance aircraft last month over Iraqi territory about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, the US military said.A US statement said the Ababil 3 was tracked for more than an hour before US jets shot it down “well-inside Iraqi airspace”. The statement said the aircraft’s presence over Iraqi airspace “was not an accident”.

An Iraqi official said the Iranian aircraft went down near the Iraqi border town of Mandali. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.

The US has frequently accused the Iranians of supplying weapons, training and money to Shiite extremist groups opposed to the US military presence and to the US-installed Iraqi government.

Iran has denied links to Shiite extremist groups inside Iraq and says the instability in this country is due to the US “occupation”.

Also on Monday, a US soldier was fatally injured during combat operations in the capital, the US said in a statement. No further details were released.

It was the first combat death reported by the US military in Baghdad this month and the first among US forces nationwide since March 7 when a soldier was killed in the Tikrit area.

US casualties have dropped sharply since US-backed Iraqi soldiers and police have taken a greater role in security. President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq by September 2010.

American combat troops are due to leave bases in Baghdad and other cities by June 30 under an agreement that provides for all US forces to leave the country by the end of 2011.

US-installed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told The Associated Press on Sunday that US troops may stay in some areas that are not completely secure even after the June 30 date.

He did not identify those areas, but US and Iraqi troops are still trying to secure Mosul, the country’s third-largest city where Al Qaeda and other Sunni militant groups remain active.Meanwhile, residents of the Kurdish town of Halabja marked the 21st anniversary of the March 16-17 poison gas attack by Saddam Hussein’s forces against Kurd separatists. The 1988 attack killed thousands of people.

“The anniversary has become etched in the memory of many people,” said Aras Abbadi, who lost 21 relatives in the attack. “Every year, we wait for the anniversary and condemn that deplorable attack committed by a dictatorial regime against its own people.”

Another participant, Mariam Saleh, 59, pointed to a photograph on display that shows a truck full of victims.

“My family was in that truck,” she wept.--AP
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