- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on
Sunday discounted claims by Iraq that Western pilots had been forced to
abandon aircraft over Baghdad.
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- Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Myers said,
"We have nothing to substantiate that claim by the Iraqis that any
pilot has bailed out of his airplane over Baghdad."
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- Responding to reports that two Western pilots had come
down by parachute and that Iraqi troops were searching for them, Myers
said he had checked just prior to appearing on the program and stated,
"All planes are reported safe at this point."
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- Earlier, a defense official who asked not to be identified
said the Pentagon had received no reports of pilots forced to eject from
aircraft over the Iraqi capital, which has been under U.S. bombardment.
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- U.S. officials had also discounted Iraqi claims it had
shot down five planes and two helicopters of the U.S.-led invasion forces.
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- Iraq Defense Ministry spokesman Hazem Abdul-Qader said
four planes were shot down over Baghdad and the fifth was downed in the
southern Iraq city of Basra, while the two helicopters were shot down in
Mosul in the north and a town he named as Simaya.
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