First US plane lands at Baghdad airport

7.50am

BAGHDAD AIRPORT - The first US military aircraft has landed at Baghdad airport, a US military source has said.

"At least one aircraft has landed at the airport," said the senior source in the US 3rd Infantry Division's aviation brigade, who was at the airport.


He said a C-130 military transporter landed at about 8 pm local time on Sunday (5 am Monday NZT), about an hour after dark, on the western, military side of the airport. He gave no details of whether it was carrying a load.


US forces seized the airport, about 20 km southwest of the city centre, on Friday. They said yesterday they controlled practically all road access to the city too.


Earlier a US warplane bombed American special forces and their Kurdish allies, killing at least 18 people in a "friendly fire" attack in northern Iraq, witnesses and Kurdish sources say.


A senior Kurdish official told Reuters that 18 Kurds were killed and over 45 wounded, including the brother of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani.


"The latest count I have for you from the Kurdish 'peshmerga' (fighters) side is 18 people killed and over 45 injured," said Hoshiyar Zebari, political adviser to Barzani.


He said a US jet bombed a convoy of American special forces and Kurdish fighters yesterday as it paused near an area recently captured from Iraqi forces not far from the town of Kalak.


The US military said it was investigating the incident, which occurred just after midday about 48 km southeast of the northern city of Mosul.


The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson said he was travelling in a convoy of eight or 10 cars when it came under air attack. Zebari said his list of dead included a translator working with the BBC team.


"This is just a scene from hell here, all the vehicles are on fire, there are bodies burning, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground," said Simpson, who was slightly hurt in the blast.


Zebari said Wajeeh Barzani, the KDP leader's brother who was commanding a special division of Kurdish peshmerga fighters working with the U.S., had been in a critical condition.


That had since stabilised and Barzani was flown by US forces to Germany for treatment.


Mansor Barzani, son of Massoud, was also slightly injured.


The KDP governs two of the three provinces of northern Iraq under Kurdish control since the 1991 Gulf War. Kurdish fighters backed by US forces are slowly advancing out of their enclave towards the Iraqi-controlled cities of Mosul and Kirkuk.


Simpson said US special forces had called in the air strike themselves, ordering an overhead plane to take out an Iraqi tank which was about 1.5 km down the road. For some reason, the plane hit the wrong target.


"I saw the bomb coming out of one of the planes, just one bomb and then extraordinarily I saw it as it came down beside me. It was painted white and red and it crashed into the ground about four metres from where I was standing."


The wounded were taken to Arbil, southeast of Kalak. Reuters reporters said the city's central hospital had been sealed off.


In a statement, the US military said: "Coalition aircraft were conducting close air support missions at the time, and were in coordination with ground forces. The circumstances contributing to the incident are under investigation."


It was not clear whether there were any American casualties.


"This (incident) does not, and will not, undermine our resolve and commitment to continue working very closely with the (US-led) coalition to achieve our common goal," Zebari said.


US warplanes have been pounding Iraqi positions ahead of the advance on Mosul and Kirkuk. Reuters correspondents in the area said there was a heavy bombardment of the road from Kalak to Mosul on Sunday morning.


There have been numerous cases of so-called friendly fire during the 18-day war in Iraq, killing an unspecified number of US and British troops.

In another incident gunfire raked a convoy of Russian diplomats and journalists as they tried to flee Baghdad on Sunday, injuring five people including the Russian ambassador, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said.

The US army said it had no troops in the Baghdad suburb where the incident took place, but a Russian television correspondent who had been in the convoy said it had been caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi forces.

Rossiya correspondent Alexander Minakov said the convoy encountered "terrible, fierce shooting" and stopped for an hour, when some of the injured were treated.

"It was then that a big convoy of American armoured vehicles appeared in front of us," he told Rossiya's evening news by satellite phone.

"They came within 50 to 70 metres of us....We came out of our cars and started waving white cloths to attract attention and ask for medical help. But no one stopped. The column passed by us for 40 minutes."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told Rossiya five Russian diplomats from the 25-strong convoy were injured. Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko was slightly hurt.

"The ambassador was not badly wounded, but he has grazes," Yakovenko said.

A ministry statement later said US Secretary of State Colin Powell had called Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and "expressed deep regret in connection with the incident". It did not say who might have been responsible.

Iraq's ambassador to Moscow, summoned to the Foreign Ministry along with US ambassador Alexander Vershbow, declined to comment.

"All commentary will come tomorrow," Abbas Khalaf told Interfax news agency. The ambassador has been outlining his country's position on Russian television almost daily since the US-led operation began last month.

Russia, an outspoken opponent of the US-led war to oust President Saddam Hussein, summoned the US ambassador last week to protest against an air raid on a Baghdad suburb where the Russian embassy is situated.

The incident involving the convoy occurred after the Kremlin had begun to soften its criticism, and US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice arrived in Moscow for talks to soothe relations strained by the countries' differences.

US Central Command in Qatar said in a statement: "Initial field reports reveal that no coalition forces were operating in the area of the incident."

"Based on the reported location, the incident is believed to have taken place in territory controlled by the Iraqi regime. The inquiry into this incident continues and more details will be made available as soon as possible."

Russian media said diplomats in the convoy would spend the night in the town of Al-Fallujah, 50 km from Baghdad and proceed to the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday if everyone was fit. A special flight would then take them home.

Most of the journalists in the convoy had travelled on to Jordan after the incident.

US Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news conference that US forces were aware the convoy was leaving Baghdad.

"We certainly had information about that," he said. "We wanted to ensure that we were providing as much protection as we could."

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war