F-15 down, rescue teams search for crew
Coalition rescue teams were today searching for two US airmen from a F-15E fighter jet that went down over Iraq two days earlier.
US military source told
FoxNews
that the plane went down near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The town is believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi resistance.
US Central Command said.it was unclear whether the plane had been shot down.
The fighter vanished early Monday, but its loss was not announced until later for security reasons, said Central Command spokesman Marine Major Brad Bartelt.
Coalition rescue teams were today searching for two US airmen from a F-15E fighter jet that went down over Iraq two days earlier.
US military source told FoxNews that the plane went down near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The town is believed to be a stronghold of Iraqi resistance.
US Central Command said.it was unclear whether the plane had been shot down.
The fighter vanished early Monday, but its loss was not announced until later for security reasons, said Central Command spokesman Marine Major Brad Bartelt.
"You want to protect the lives of any survivors on the ground. As soon as you send that information out, what you can do potentially is tip off an adversary or an enemy as to where or what happened," he said.
Abide Geneva Conventions
Central Command said the airmen and their aircraft were deployed from the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
"The coalition expects Iraqi forces and Iraqi citizens to abide by all Geneva Conventions relating to the treatment of prisoners," the command said in a statement.
Meanwhile, central command also revealed that a A-10 Warthog warplane was shot down near Baghdad early yesterday in the first reported downing of a coalition aircraft by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile.
Its pilot ejected safely and was recovered by coalition ground forces near the airport.
Teenager killed
In another development, a 13-year-old Iranian boy was reportedly killed by a stray rocket near the Iraq-Iran border prompting an angry response from the authorities there.
According to a FoxNews report, this is the third time that Iranian territory has been hit by a rocket since the war began.
The rocket had "apparently been fired by US-led coalition planes," said Mohammad Kianoush-Rad, who represents Ahvaz, capital of Khuzestan province, in the Iranian parliament.
He said it landed outside Abadan, a port city east of the Iraqi city of Basra, which had been the site of intense fighting between coalition forces and Iraqi troops.
Mohammad Sohofi, a top government official, issued a sharp condemnation and said authorities were treating the case very seriously.
"The aggressor forces are responsible for violating Iran's air space and inflicting human and property losses," he was quoted as saying in the television report.
Strong reaction
Pentagon spokesmen said they had no immediate information about Iran's claim.
The Iranian government reacted strongly when stray missiles fired by both Iraq and coalition forces landed in Iranian territory on March 21 and 22, summoning the Iraqi charge d'affaires and the British and Swiss ambassadors to protest.
The first rocket fired by a coalition warplane struck an Oil Ministry building in Abadan on March 21, injuring two people. Another missile, which Iran said was fired by Iraq, landed a day later in Sardasht, western Iran. No one was hurt.
The State Department assured Iran after the March 21 rocket incident that Washington was investigating.
