Missile hits plane in Iraq - U.S. ( 2003-11-22 17:10) (CNN.com)
The latest series of audacious attacks in Iraq have continued with a missile
attack on a transport plane and car bombings on two police stations, according
to U.S. military sources.
Shortly before 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Saturday, a car bomb hit a police station
in Baquba about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, the officials said.
CNN's Jane Arraf said some civilians died in the attack but it is not yet
clear how many. No coalition soldiers were injured in the attack.
About 30 minutes later, two car bombs hit a police station in Khan Bani
Sa'ad, a town about 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad. The number of casualties
there is also unknown.
Also on Saturday morning, a DHL courier plane safely landed at Baghdad
International Airport after a heat-seeking, surface-to-air missile hit one of
its engines, according to military sources at the airport.
No one was injured.
The aircraft had just taken off when it was hit by the SAM-7, sources said.
One of the engines was set on fire, which was extinguished after the plane
landed, the sources said.
Missiles have been fired several times at planes approaching the airport,
Arraf said but Saturday's incident was the first time a fixed-wing aircraft had
been hit.
The U.S. military has stepped up its offensive against the anti-coalition
insurgency throughout central Iraq, hammering guerrilla targets in Baghdad,
Baquba and other towns in the region where opposition to the U.S.-led occupation
of Iraq runs high.
Saturday's attacks come a day after rockets launched from donkey-pulled carts
hit the Iraqi Oil Ministry and two heavily guarded hotels.
A U.S. military commander described Friday's attacks as "sensational" but
"militarily insignificant."
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said the strikes reflected the low-tech
ingenuity guerrillas employ in fighting the high-tech might of a coalition
struggling for solid grass-roots information about the elusive insurgents.
"No matter how high-tech you are, no matter how proficient you are, no matter
how professional your soldiers are ... we are still dependent to a great degree
on actionable intelligence," said Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy chief of
operations.
Speaking to reporters, Kimmitt said intelligence-gathering was "getting
better every day" but was not good enough yet.
"Do we have enough actionable intelligence? No. The lack of actionable
intelligence, does that allow donkeys to sneak in and fire rockets? Yes."
Calling the insurgents "ingenious," Kimmitt said they were "a very clever
enemy who knows that we don't have the best intelligence in the world" and will
exploit that weakness.
The rockets were aimed at the Iraqi Oil Ministry and the heavily guarded
Palestine Hotel, which houses Western journalists and coalition contractors.
Kimmitt said two to three rockets struck the hotel, where CNN is based. One
of the rockets ricocheted off the 16th floor and hit the Sheraton Hotel.
Two people were wounded, one of them a U.S. civilian at the Palestine Hotel
who was critically injured. A bellboy at the Sheraton Hotel had minor wounds.
The oil ministry building was hit by seven to 10 rockets, Kimmitt said. There
were no known casualties, and the launchers were recovered.
Fifteen rockets were found undetonated nearby.
Later, two more donkey carts loaded with weapons were found at different
locations in Baghdad and the weapons were defused, a coalition military official
said.
The carts were disguised to look like farmers' carts, with agricultural
products stacked on top.
