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al Jizz: Video Seems to Show British Plane Hit in Iraq
EFL Aljazeera has aired a video showing a purported Iraqi group firing missiles at the British C-130 transport plane which crashed on Sunday afternoon northwest of Baghdad. The video, issued by the military wing of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, also showed an explosion at a distance and what appeared to be the debris of a plane on the ground. Aljazeera said on Monday it had received a copy of the tape from the group. Earlier, Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida-linked group, posted a statement on a website claiming it downed the Hercule aircraft. The authenticity of the Ansar al-Islam website could not be verified. British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said in a statement: "We are aware of reports that the aircraft may have been shot down, but we are not in a position to come to any conclusions until the investigation is complete." The ministry also declined to comment on reports in The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror newspapers that members of Britainââ¬s elite Special Air Service (SAS) were aboard the flight. Air Vice-Marshall Tony Mason, a military expert, said the crash, which occurred during a spate of attacks aimed at sabotaging the first democratic elections in Iraq for 50 years, could have been caused by hostile action. "On the face of it we have a fully serviceable aircraft, we have an extremely competent crew, we have the potential indicator that the first statement said the crash site covered a wide area, which suggests impact in the air rather than the ground," Mason said. Meanwhile Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan hasàcriticised the US for failing to halt what he called Kurdish efforts to dominate the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-01-31 |
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