Iraqi police hunt suspected downed allied pilot in Tigris

HUNDREDS of Iraqi police and security agents searched for a possibly downed coalition pilot yesterday, shooting into the reeds alongside Baghdad’s Tigris River.

They set fire to brush in some spots, and small boats patrolled the river’s edge.

The US Central Command in Qatar and the Pentagon said there were no reports of coalition aircraft being shot down or a missing pilot.

But Lebanese TV Al-Manar, owned by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, reported a British pilot was captured in Baghdad and that the search along the Tigris was for his co-pilot.

An earlier report, by Qatari-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera TV, also said a Western pilot had been captured in Baghdad and another was being sought. Iraq’s al-Shabab television reported the capture of an allied pilot but appeared to be relying on al-Jazeera reporting and not its own.

Security men armed with Kalashikov assault rifles swarmed to the Tigris after witnesses reported seeing parachutes fall alongside its west bank soon after air raid sirens had sounded in Baghdad.

Crowds and television crews gathered quickly at the scene.

The excitement caused bumper-to-bumper traffic on roads leading to the river and on bridges. Hundreds of people parked their cars and got out to watch the search. Some even tried to join in. Police quickly blocked roads leading to the area.

Some Iraqis brought their children and others arrived waving huge Iraqi flags from their car windows.

During the search, repeated explosions could be heard at a distance. In the sky were vapour trails and dark clouds from fuel the Iraqis were burning to conceal targets in the capital.

Not far from the scene, life was proceeded normally in the commercial al-Karada area of Baghdad. Many food and butcher stores were open, as were barber shops, cafes and restaurants.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan claimed an unspecified number of Americans had been captured and would be shown on television.

Coalition officials initially denied the claim, but later Defense Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said some US soldiers might be missing.

He noted that under the Geneva Convention “it’s illegal to do things to POWs that are humiliating to those prisoners”.

Ramadan, guarded by at least a half-dozen heavily armed soldiers at his news conference, also denied speculation that Saddam Hussein had been wounded by coalition attacks.