Rolf Martens
2006-11-30 12:49:39 UTC
At my homepage www.rolf-martens.com I've added today, under
"News with brief comments":
Thursday, 30 November 2006 (NWBC 226) Iraqi resistance groups
claim US F-16 shot down
2006-11-30, 09:57 GMT:
According to a recent message, an F-16 of the US imperia-
lists' aggressor forces was shot down by the Iraqi
resistance last Monday, 27.11, while attacking resistance
positions near al-Fallujah.
In such cases, it's difficult to ascertain whether the
shoot-down claim is accurate or not. The possibility of a
misdirected propaganda "report" on the part of some group of
people or other does exist. The official mass media of the
US imperialists themelves have confirmed that a US fighter-
bomber of that type did indeed crash on Monday, but either
are saying that a shoot-down was unlikely or else are not
mentioning the possibility of it. In general, of course,
those media are interested in downplaying the military
strength of the resistance, probably in particular that of
certain groups within it. Some contradictory statements in
the US media seem to indicate that the F-16 indeed was shot
down. It's also possible, though, that these media in this
case actually want to exaggerate the strength and the anti-
aggressor activity of certain groups among the Iraqi
resistance - some such with which they may hope to "come to
terms". Thus the question of what in fact took place so far
remains unclear.
Here are some messages concerning the event of this F-16
crash in Iraq, showing up a complicated picture of "propa-
ganda warfare" on the part of various political groups:
The Russia-based website Iraq War Mirror wrote, on 28:11:
[http://www.iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/110473]
"Iraqi Resistance shoots down US F-16 jet fighter with
Strela rockets after it dropped cluster bombs on Resistance
positions near al-Fallujah midday Monday.
In a dispatch posted at 4:25pm Makkah time Monday afternoon,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the US military had admitted
that one of its F-16 fighter bombers had gone down near the
town of al-Fallujah, about 60km west of Baghdad.
...
In a dispatch posted at 5:54pm Makkah time Monday evening,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that eyewitnesses in the
al-Haswah area, 30km east of al-Fallujah related details of
the downing of the American F-16 warplane at 1:30pm local
time Monday. The al-Fallujah correspondent for Mafkarat
al-Islam reported the eyewitnesses who spoke with him by
telephone as saying that the Resistance fired two Strela
surface-to-air rockets at the F-16. One of the rockets
scored a direct hit on the airplane, sending it plummeting
into date palm groves known locally as the Abu Jahali groves
where it crashed into the earth in a massive explosion and
fire.
Quds Press noted that this was the first time that the
Americans admitted the loss of an F-16 warplane in Iraq.
Independent sources, Quds Press noted however, had reported
that the Resistance had shot down an F-16 during the First
Battle of al-Fallujah in the spring of 2004. The US
government did not admit the loss of that aircraft."
An entirely correct report or not? It mentioned, seemingly
well-informed, a type of missile as used, Strela. There is
indeed such a hand-held surface-to-air milssile, developed
rather long ago in the then Soviet Union for use also
against supersonic aircraft and later employed by a number
of countries - see a US military site on this.
[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/
world/russia/sa-7.htm]
Was propaganda for that weapon intended, in a perhaps not
accurate part of that report? I cannot tell. Also, it may be
noted that this report did not say which one among the
various resistance group it was that had claimed the
shoot-down.
The US-based ABC website wrote on 28.11:
[http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=4800169]
"Al-Jazeera says pilot was killed in F-16 crash
...
The U-S military says the F-16 jet was supporting ground
forces when it went down. Officials have released no
information on why the plane crashed or what happened to the
pilot."
The US military-magazine website Stars and Stripes wrote
yesterday:
[http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=
104&article=41798]
"Mystery surrounds F-16, pilot in Iraq crash
...
At a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday morning in Arlington,
Va., spokesman Bryan Whitman offered no new details of the
crash or the status of the pilot. Late Monday, a spokeswoman
from Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, confirmed that the
downed aircraft belonged to the 524th Fighter Squadron, 27th
Fighter Wing, part of which is deployed to Balad Air Base,
north of Baghdad.
But, Capt. Rebecca Garcia said, all of the wing's pilots
were accounted for.
It was unclear how often or why a pilot from another
squadron would be flying an aircraft assigned to that wing,
officials said.
Late Tuesday, a pair of insurgent groups in Iraq - the
Mujahideen Army and the Mujahideen Shura Council - issued a
joint statement claiming they had shot down the aircraft.
Earlier, the top military spokesman in Baghdad said it was
unlikely that the plane had been shot down, citing the speed
at which the jet normally operates and the lack so far of
insurgent weapons capable of hitting a fighter jet."
Thus, apparently, "probably no missing US pilot", in the
first place, and "resistance forces in Iraq don't have
missiles that can hit an F-16", in the second.
I's quite possible, on the contrary, that some of them do, I
hold. There have been many reports, for instance, of
armoured vehicles of the aggressors' being hit and destroyed
by rocket-propelled grenades used by the resistance in Iraq,
and hand-held surface-to-air missile launchers are not much
bigger than RPG ditto.
In this Stars and Stripes message, there was a mention of
some particular Iraqi resistance groups as having claimed a
shoot-down - not the Baath party earlier in power in Iraq,
for instance, but two other and Shia-Muslim-based ones.
Possibly an invention with the intention of "favouring"
those, on the sly? Such a thing cannot be ascertained
either.
Despite the message quoted above and strongly hinting that
no US F-16 pilot had been killed on 27.11, other US-
originating messages have confirmed that one in fact was -
messages from AlertNet and from CNN, both yesterday; the
latter saying that the crashed aircraft in fact was one of
those deployed from the Cannon Air Force base in New Mexico
(which in another message, quoted above, had reported "no
missing pilot").
[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29311689.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/29/
missing.airman/index.html]
Neither of those US-based websites said anything about a
shoot-down as a possible cause of that crash.
Whatever the actual cause - a question of some importance
concerning the Iraqi resistance's military capabilties -
it's obvious that the US and other invaders are in serious
trouble in Iraq. According to the German newspaper Die Welt
today, the Baker Commission in the USA, for instance, is
recommending that half of the US occupation troops, today
numbering some 144,000, be withdrawn in 2007.
[http://www.welt.de/data/2006/11/30/1129720.html]
_____________________
Message posted by:
Rolf Martens
Malmö, Sweden
Phone and fax:
+46 - 40 - 124832;
***@comhem.se
www.rolf-martens.com
______________________
"News with brief comments":
Thursday, 30 November 2006 (NWBC 226) Iraqi resistance groups
claim US F-16 shot down
2006-11-30, 09:57 GMT:
According to a recent message, an F-16 of the US imperia-
lists' aggressor forces was shot down by the Iraqi
resistance last Monday, 27.11, while attacking resistance
positions near al-Fallujah.
In such cases, it's difficult to ascertain whether the
shoot-down claim is accurate or not. The possibility of a
misdirected propaganda "report" on the part of some group of
people or other does exist. The official mass media of the
US imperialists themelves have confirmed that a US fighter-
bomber of that type did indeed crash on Monday, but either
are saying that a shoot-down was unlikely or else are not
mentioning the possibility of it. In general, of course,
those media are interested in downplaying the military
strength of the resistance, probably in particular that of
certain groups within it. Some contradictory statements in
the US media seem to indicate that the F-16 indeed was shot
down. It's also possible, though, that these media in this
case actually want to exaggerate the strength and the anti-
aggressor activity of certain groups among the Iraqi
resistance - some such with which they may hope to "come to
terms". Thus the question of what in fact took place so far
remains unclear.
Here are some messages concerning the event of this F-16
crash in Iraq, showing up a complicated picture of "propa-
ganda warfare" on the part of various political groups:
The Russia-based website Iraq War Mirror wrote, on 28:11:
[http://www.iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/110473]
"Iraqi Resistance shoots down US F-16 jet fighter with
Strela rockets after it dropped cluster bombs on Resistance
positions near al-Fallujah midday Monday.
In a dispatch posted at 4:25pm Makkah time Monday afternoon,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the US military had admitted
that one of its F-16 fighter bombers had gone down near the
town of al-Fallujah, about 60km west of Baghdad.
...
In a dispatch posted at 5:54pm Makkah time Monday evening,
Mafkarat al-Islam reported that eyewitnesses in the
al-Haswah area, 30km east of al-Fallujah related details of
the downing of the American F-16 warplane at 1:30pm local
time Monday. The al-Fallujah correspondent for Mafkarat
al-Islam reported the eyewitnesses who spoke with him by
telephone as saying that the Resistance fired two Strela
surface-to-air rockets at the F-16. One of the rockets
scored a direct hit on the airplane, sending it plummeting
into date palm groves known locally as the Abu Jahali groves
where it crashed into the earth in a massive explosion and
fire.
Quds Press noted that this was the first time that the
Americans admitted the loss of an F-16 warplane in Iraq.
Independent sources, Quds Press noted however, had reported
that the Resistance had shot down an F-16 during the First
Battle of al-Fallujah in the spring of 2004. The US
government did not admit the loss of that aircraft."
An entirely correct report or not? It mentioned, seemingly
well-informed, a type of missile as used, Strela. There is
indeed such a hand-held surface-to-air milssile, developed
rather long ago in the then Soviet Union for use also
against supersonic aircraft and later employed by a number
of countries - see a US military site on this.
[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/
world/russia/sa-7.htm]
Was propaganda for that weapon intended, in a perhaps not
accurate part of that report? I cannot tell. Also, it may be
noted that this report did not say which one among the
various resistance group it was that had claimed the
shoot-down.
The US-based ABC website wrote on 28.11:
[http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=4800169]
"Al-Jazeera says pilot was killed in F-16 crash
...
The U-S military says the F-16 jet was supporting ground
forces when it went down. Officials have released no
information on why the plane crashed or what happened to the
pilot."
The US military-magazine website Stars and Stripes wrote
yesterday:
[http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=
104&article=41798]
"Mystery surrounds F-16, pilot in Iraq crash
...
At a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday morning in Arlington,
Va., spokesman Bryan Whitman offered no new details of the
crash or the status of the pilot. Late Monday, a spokeswoman
from Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, confirmed that the
downed aircraft belonged to the 524th Fighter Squadron, 27th
Fighter Wing, part of which is deployed to Balad Air Base,
north of Baghdad.
But, Capt. Rebecca Garcia said, all of the wing's pilots
were accounted for.
It was unclear how often or why a pilot from another
squadron would be flying an aircraft assigned to that wing,
officials said.
Late Tuesday, a pair of insurgent groups in Iraq - the
Mujahideen Army and the Mujahideen Shura Council - issued a
joint statement claiming they had shot down the aircraft.
Earlier, the top military spokesman in Baghdad said it was
unlikely that the plane had been shot down, citing the speed
at which the jet normally operates and the lack so far of
insurgent weapons capable of hitting a fighter jet."
Thus, apparently, "probably no missing US pilot", in the
first place, and "resistance forces in Iraq don't have
missiles that can hit an F-16", in the second.
I's quite possible, on the contrary, that some of them do, I
hold. There have been many reports, for instance, of
armoured vehicles of the aggressors' being hit and destroyed
by rocket-propelled grenades used by the resistance in Iraq,
and hand-held surface-to-air missile launchers are not much
bigger than RPG ditto.
In this Stars and Stripes message, there was a mention of
some particular Iraqi resistance groups as having claimed a
shoot-down - not the Baath party earlier in power in Iraq,
for instance, but two other and Shia-Muslim-based ones.
Possibly an invention with the intention of "favouring"
those, on the sly? Such a thing cannot be ascertained
either.
Despite the message quoted above and strongly hinting that
no US F-16 pilot had been killed on 27.11, other US-
originating messages have confirmed that one in fact was -
messages from AlertNet and from CNN, both yesterday; the
latter saying that the crashed aircraft in fact was one of
those deployed from the Cannon Air Force base in New Mexico
(which in another message, quoted above, had reported "no
missing pilot").
[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29311689.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/29/
missing.airman/index.html]
Neither of those US-based websites said anything about a
shoot-down as a possible cause of that crash.
Whatever the actual cause - a question of some importance
concerning the Iraqi resistance's military capabilties -
it's obvious that the US and other invaders are in serious
trouble in Iraq. According to the German newspaper Die Welt
today, the Baker Commission in the USA, for instance, is
recommending that half of the US occupation troops, today
numbering some 144,000, be withdrawn in 2007.
[http://www.welt.de/data/2006/11/30/1129720.html]
_____________________
Message posted by:
Rolf Martens
Malmö, Sweden
Phone and fax:
+46 - 40 - 124832;
***@comhem.se
www.rolf-martens.com
______________________