Damascus: Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri claimed his country's troops had shot
down an unspecified US airplane over a Baghdad suburb, as he arrived in the Syrian
capital early March 23.
"Our fighters shot down a plane over the area of Abu Gharieb (in Baghdad), and of
course there is a pilot or more in it, but I will not get into that in front of
you," said Sabri, the first Iraqi official to leave Iraq since the start of the US-
led attack on March 20.
However, a Pentagon spokesman denied any US aircraft had been shot down over
Baghdad. Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan said he had no "information that this is
accurate ... all our aircraft are accounted for".
