Iraq buys 12 US-made reconnaissance planes

BAGDHAD: Iraq has bought 12 new U.S.-built reconnaissance planes to bolster surveillance of its borders and better track movement of extremist groups, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said six King Air planes have been delivered, with six more expected to arrive soon. He said they would be used in Iraq's ``war against terrorism.''

``The planes will be used to track terrorists' movements inside or outside cities, plus detect any infiltration across Iraq's borders,'' al-Askari said.

The U.S. military often has used reconnaissance aircraft in Iraq to track down safe houses with militants inside.

The King Airs are small aircraft equipped with advanced aerial video technology enabling them to cover wide areas and send live feed to ground control centers, the Defense Ministry says. The twin-turboprop aircraft are produced by U.S. manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft Corp., based in Wichita, Kan.

Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obeidi said in a statement Sunday that ``these planes have been bought with Iraqi money'' but he did not disclose the value of the purchase. The planes already have been flown over Baghdad by trained Iraqi pilots, according to the statement.

The U.S. has been working to train and equip Iraqi security forces on the ground and in the air to prepare them to take over their own security.

Violence has receded over the past year following a U.S. troop buildup, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire. However, U.S. commanders have warned that extremist groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq are still trying to rekindle sectarian warfare to undermine the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

In violence Monday, gunmen attacked a tribal sheik, Ahmed Salim, wounding him and killing two of his sons in the village of al-Rasoul in Diyala province, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Diyala, one of the country's most violent provinces, lies to Baghdad's northeast and borders Iran.

In Baghdad, workers swept up broken glass and other debris from bloodstained streets, after a series of explosions struck areas in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 35 people.

The attacks began just before or after Muslims ate the meal that breaks the daily, dawn-to-dusk fast during the holy month of Ramadan. They appeared aimed at reviving sectarian tensions that once brought the nation to the brink of all-out civil war.

Tariq Hussein, 25, the owner of a clothing shop, left a hospital Monday after being treated for shrapnel injuries in his arm and leg he received in the deadliest attack in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Karradah.

He said the explosion ``shocked me strongly and I saw the burned dead bodies of people, and cars on the street collided with each other.''

Separately, an American soldier was killed by small-arms fire during a patrol Monday afternoon in northern Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a military spokesman.

The death raises to at least 4,175 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003. That is according to an Associated Press count.