In Final Indignity for Downed Chopper, Pakistanis Fire on Recovery Team Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit The Telegraph - Oct 25, 2001 http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F10%2F25%2Fwar25.xml In Final Indignity for Downed Chopper, Aircraft Carrier Rejects It, and Pakistanis Fire On It [Two birds picked up the wreck of last weekend's crashed helicopter and tried to take it to a carrier; the carrier didn't want it, sent them back in. The recovery team went to an airfield they weren't cleared to use, and someone on the ground took a shot at them; Our Boys returned fire, whereupon the guards on the ground opened up at the birds. Which dropped the wreck and ran away.] Pakistani troops fire at US helicopters By Sandra Leville in Quetta (Filed: 25/10/2001) TWO American helicopters were fired on in Pakistan when they caused confusion by trying to land at a remote airport without warning. Both governments admitted the incident and security was tightened yesterday at three air bases used by America in its campaign against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. The helicopters entered Pakistan to recover a wrecked Black Hawk helicopter which crashed last Saturday, killing two US Rangers, after a special forces ground assault on targets in and around Kandahar in Afghanistan. Shots were fired as they approached Panjgur in the south west. Pakistani police blamed unknown "extremists" for the firing. The helicopters returned fire and Pakistani forces at the base then opened up in what the authorities said was panic caused by the arrival of two military aircraft they had not been expecting. The American helicopters dropped the wreckage they were lifting, banked steeply and flew away. The police said the Americans had arrived at the base after the helicopters were refused permission to land the wreckage on an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. A senior officer said, "They went to Panjgur, which is close to the Arabian Sea, and it was while circling the airport that shots were heard. "This panicked the paramilitary troops who were already nervous at the unscheduled arrival of United States helicopters and they started firing in the air." The wreckage of the crashed helicopter was left at Panjgur but was collected yesterday. Police said all efforts were being made to hunt down the "extremists". The sensitive issue of providing bases in Pakistan for American troops has already led to several demonstrations by extremist religious parties. American military planners will be concerned by the shooting, as they regard Pakistani air bases as essential stepping stones for helicopters heading to the war zone. British forces are also thought likely to seek the use of Pakistani bases when they arrive in the region. A Pakistani Foreign Ministry official sought to play down the significance of the incident. "No one was injured," he said. "There was a stray shot. No damage was done." As efforts were made to smooth over the confrontation, the Americans refused to comment on who might have been responsible for the shooting. They said only that the helicopters were fired on as they tried to land to take on fuel. The clash added another chapter to the controversy surrounding the Black Hawk crash, which caused the first American deaths in the war against terrorism. Almost immediately after it was lost, the Taliban claimed that they had shot it down. They produced a wheel which they said came from the aircraft and paraded it on the Arab television station, al-Jazeera. But the Taliban did not show the helicopter's fuselage or any wreckage, suggesting that the craft had not been destroyed in Afghanistan. American forces are known to be using bases at Dalbandin and Jacobabad in Sindh province, where there have been demonstrations against the United States, and at Pasni in Baluchistan province. Some could have been used as staging posts for the ground action. The Pakistani Interior Ministry has expressed confidence in its ability to keep the bases secure. Last Tuesday a demonstration at Jacobabad was curbed when police arrested about 45 leaders and members of Islamic extremist parties. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-10.26.01-07:03:21-4897