"A DHL plane took off from Baghdad airport this morning and was hit by a SAM-7 surface-to-air missile," said a military official who asked not to be identified.

"It caught fire, it turned around and came back to the airport where it safely landed. The fire was taken out. There are no injuries," he added.

It was the first time that a plane using Baghdad airport had been hit by a missile although eight previous firings had been reported. All of those were against military or official aircraft, not civilian planes, according to the Iraqi transport ministry.

A resident of the southern Yusifiyeh area of the capital said he saw the missile being fired on the aircraft and hitting its left wing, setting it ablaze.

DHL, the formerly US-owned courier now owned by German giant Deutsche Post, confirmed that its staff had suffered no injuries.

"At approximately 6:30 GMT this morning, a DHL aircraft, an Airbus A300 freighter, departing from Baghdad to Bahrain, had to return to Baghdad and effect an emergency landing," company spokeswoman Patricia Thomson said in Brussels.

"This emergency landing was undertaken successfully. I'm delighted to confirm that all on board escaped any injury."

Asked whether DHL was reviewing its operations in Baghdad, Thomson added: "It would be too early to comment on that at all."

The courier was the first to be given authorization by the US-led coalition to operate out of Baghdad and started worldwide advertising of its Baghdad service in July.

At the time it said it was using five expatriate personnel and eight local staff which it intended to expand to 15.

It then operated up to six daily direct flights from its Gulf hub of Bahrain to Baghdad using a combination of Airbus A-300, Antonov AN-12 and Boeing 727 aircraft.

The SA-7, made by Russian firm Strella, has a range of up to 3,200 metres (3,500 yards), and is an ideal weapon for anti-US insurgents as it is fired by a single person.

Thousands of them were bought by Saddam Hussein's regime, many of which fell into civilian hands after the collapse of his armed forces during the US-led spring invasion.

The coalition has set up a buy-back programme in an attempt to get the weapons off the streets, but acknowledges that hundreds probably remain in the hands of their foes.

The threat has prevented the reopening of Baghdad airport to scheduled civilian flights throughout the seven months since it was occupied by US troops.

But the airport has a total of 110 flights a day -- 70 of them official or military and 40 of them civilian charter or cargo flights, according to interim transport minister Behnam Polis.

Polis told AFP on November 13 that he had asked US civilian administrator Paul Bremer for permission to fully reopen the airport this week.

But in the light of the persistent missile threat, that authorization is likely to continue to be withheld.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Quick Links
SpaceWar
Search SpaceWar
Subscribe To SpaceWar Express

SpaceWar Search Engine

SUBSCRIBE TO THE SPACEWAR NEWSLETTER SubscribeUnsubscribe