zaadee

CNN) -- A U.S. military plane carrying three U.S. senators and one member of the House of Representatives came under rocket fire Thursday night and had to make evasive maneuvers as it left Baghdad for Amman, Jordan.


Clockwise from top left: Sen. James Inhofe, Sen. Mel Martinez, Rep. Bud Cramer, Sen. Richard Shelby

1 of 2 On the C-130 flight were Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama; Mel Martinez, R-Florida; James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma; and Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Alabama.

"We were shot at by three rockets," Shelby said in a statement Friday. "It was dark as the dickens, and I was looking out the small window on the plane and I saw a shell. We saw them, they were popping, and we saw the flares."

The flares are part of the missile avoidance system aboard the C-130 aircraft. The heat from the flares are a countermeasure to attract rockets that have heat-seeking guidance systems.

Shelby added that the plane "started maneuvering, changing directions, shaking us all around, and then I saw another shell near the plane. It's a hostile area, it was a tough area, but the flight crew was very professional; they really did a tremendous job."

Cramer, in a separate statement, said, "Our plane leaving Iraq was fired upon, and it was a close call, but this is something that our men and women in combat face every day. The flight crew was outstanding, and I credit them for the way they handled the situation."

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Multi-National Force-Iraq, in a statement issued Friday, said the C-130 crew "dispensed flares as a defensive countermeasure and conducted standard evasive maneuvers. The aircraft, crew and passengers safely completed their flight."

In violence on the ground, four policemen were killed and five people were wounded in a car bombing Friday in northern Iraq, police said. The explosive detonated near a convoy in Samarra, said police in that Salaheddin province city.

U.S.-led coalition troops on Friday killed five insurgents and detained 13 others in raids across Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The five were killed and five were detained southwest of Balad in Salaheddin when troops targeted an al Qaeda in Iraq leader.

"Intelligence reports indicate he recently assumed a position coordinating terrorist logistics between Baghdad and Mosul, and may be trying to obtain chemical weapons for use in attacks against coalition forces," the military said.

The military did not say whether the al Qaeda in Iraq member was killed or detained.

Other raids occurred north of Tarmiya, in Baiji in the north and in Baghdad, where a suspected key leader in the city's car-bombing network was detained, the military said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Marines, backed by air support, killed 12 men believed to be al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists in Anbar province, the U.S. military said Friday.

According to the military, the Marines engaged a group of men loading objects into three cargo trucks near Karma, a town about 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

Marine Corps Harrier jets were called in and dropped two precision-guided bombs, destroying two vehicles. Marines said they found weapons and bomb-making materials at the scene.

Also, a U.S. Marine and soldier were killed in separate attacks Wednesday in Anbar, the military said. Both were assigned to the Multi-National Force-West.

The U.S. military death toll in the Iraq war stands at 3,730; seven civilian contractors also have been killed. The military has reported 79 U.S. troop deaths during August, matching last month's toll.

Those figures are lower than fatalities in the previous three months, when there were 100 U.S. deaths in June, 126 in May and 104 in April.

Meanwhile, about 1,500 detainees will be released from Iraqi prisons during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a statement from the office of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi said.

About 50 people per day will be set free from "American prisons," al-Hashimi adviser Omar al-Jabouri said.

The prisoner release is part of a larger initiative by al-Hashimi to clear "innocent detainees" from prisons in Iraq. The vice president is developing the plan with input from Iraq's political blocs and the U.S. military.

Goodwill gestures are common during Ramadan -- a monthlong observance of daytime fasting and prayer that will begin around September 12.

ceilirose

Will this be spinned by the WH as the surge working?

migamoo

Who knows for sure.

elisheva

zaadee, please add a link back to the source for this article. Thanks.

sunnykerr

That's a bit frightening, considering the kind of damage a crashing plane can cause, but it's not very surprising.