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Article: Gates In Baghdad.
- Article from:
- APS Diplomat Fate of the Arabian Peninsula
- Article date:
- June 18, 2007
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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on June 15 made an unannounced visit to Baghdad to urge PM Maliki to speed up national reconciliation among the various Iraqi sectarian, ethnic and political factions, while a US Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed during an air support mission for ground forces and five US soldiers died on June 14-15. The loss of an F-16, a workhorse warplane in the Iraq war, is a rare event. One crashed last Nov. 27 in Anbar, killing the pilot. The jet was deployed to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Balad Air Base, 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, north of Baghdad.
Gates flew into Baghdad to assess the US troop build-up aimed at buying leaders of ...