BAGHDAD, May 3: Search teams have found the body of a US Marine pilot whose F-18 crashed in Iraq, but a second warplane is still missing, the US military said on Tuesday. The two F-18s disappeared on Monday night while flying missions from the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson, which is based in the Gulf off southern Iraq.

A military spokesman said there were no indications the planes had come down under hostile fire. It was not clear if they might have collided during a heavy sand and lightning storm that hit central Iraq around the time they went missing.

Washington hopes to reduce its losses in Iraq by pulling out troops, but that is unlikely to happen until Iraqi forces prove they can secure the country, particularly hotspots like Qaim, near the Syrian border, where US forces killed 12 suspected insurgents in a firefight and bombing on Monday.

The US military said six soldiers were wounded in the fight near the border against suspected members of Al Qaeda’s wing in Iraq, which is headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

American soldiers killed nine insurgents and three people were killed by a coalition airstrike, the military said. A six-year-old girl and a fighter were wounded in the battle. The millions of Iraqis who braved suicide bombs to vote in the Jan 30 elections hoped they would be rewarded by new leaders who would improve their security forces. But it took haggling politicians three months to form a partial cabinet, emboldening insurgents who have stepped up attacks since the government was formed. —Reuters