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US jet shot down, pilots captured: Iraq
March 23, 2003 18:41 IST
Iraq on Sunday claimed to have shot down a US jet over Baghdad.
The aircraft's woman pilot and the co-pilot parachuted safely after being hit by anti-aircraft artillery but were captured by Iraqi forces, official Iranian news agency IRNA said quoting the Al Arabiya television channel.
However, the Pentagon has denied any US aircraft had been shot down over Baghdad.
Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said he had no 'information that this is accurate... all our aircraft are accounted for'.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people were killed in a US-led missile attack on the northern Kurdish city of Khaneqin, east of Sulaimaniya, IRNA said quoting local sources in the western Iranian border city of Marivan.
US forces fired more than 100 Tomahawk missiles on Saturday targetting the stronghold of the Ansar al-Islam, a militant group allegedly linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.
Washington accuses the group of having carried out or planning to carry out terror attacks against the United States as well as trying to build biological and chemical weapons with the help of the Al Qaeda.
Missiles also reportedly hit the base of a mainstream Islamic party, the Komala Islami Kurdistan at Khormal.
PTI