Foreign aircrafts crash in Iraq

2005-05-31 11:38

Baghdad - Four American and four Italian military personnel were killed in separate aircraft crashes, military officials said on Tuesday, as Iraq's prime minister condemned the arrest of a top Sunni political leader by United States troops.

Monday's 12-hour detention of Iraqi Islamic Party leader Mohsen Abdul-Hamid did little to help American efforts to entice Iraq's once-dominant Sunni community back into the political fold.

Iraq's raging insurgency, which has killed more than 760 people since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28, is believed to be strongly backed by radical Sunni extremists.

The Iraqi fixed-wing aircraft crashed near the village of Jalula, about 130km northeast of Baghdad, said US military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Fred Wellman.

The four Americans killed were all US air force members and the Iraqi was a pilot, Wellman said.

'Mistaken' arrest

The Italian AB-412 military helicopter crashed overnight killing its four Italian pilots and two gunmen attacked to the army at about 13km southeast of Nasiriyah, Italian military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Fabio Mattiassi said on Tuesday. Most of Italy's 3 000 troops are based in Nasiriyah. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

The arrest of Abdul-Hamid, his three sons and four guards was condemned by Iraq's president and prime minister plus the leaders of Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups.

"We condemned as early as possible (the arrest of Abdul-Hamid) ... and from now on we will confront these matters so we can be sure they won't be repeated again in the future," Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told reporters Tuesday.

Few details were available on why the Americans arrested the Sunni leader.

The US military acknowledged it had made a "mistake" by detaining Abdul-Hamid, a short-time leader of Iraq's dissolved US-backed Governing Council whose party boycotted the January 30 national elections but has recently agreed to join the country's political process.

Iraqi authorities suggested someone had planted "lies" against him in a bid to stir up "sectarian sedition." Abdul-Hamid said US forces questioned him about the "current situation," an apparent reference to the wave of attacks.

- AP