Missile attack cancels lawmakers' Baghdad trip [View All]

Missile attack cancels lawmakers' Baghdad trip
By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER
November 17, 2003


Security concerns forced a congressional delegation to scrap a planned flight into Baghdad on Monday after an earlier flight into the Iraqi capital was targeted by surface-to-air missiles, a Colorado congressman said.

An eight-member delegation was supposed to wrap up its three-day trip to the Middle East on Monday by flying from Kuwait to Baghdad to meet with a U.S. military commander and then visit local schools, said Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez.

When members awoke at a Kuwait City hotel Monday, they were informed that the trip had been canceled because of an incident about six hours earlier, when two surface-to-air missiles were fired at a C-130 transport plane on its approach to Baghdad, Beauprez said. (snip)

(snip) Instead of the Baghdad trip, the group remained in Kuwait and toured the command center of the Combined Forces Land Component Command at Camp Doha before beginning its return trip to the United States Monday night. (snip)

(snip) Others on the fact-finding mission included Reps. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.; Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla.; Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; David Hobson, R-Ohio; Michael Oxley, R-Ohio; John Tanner, D-Tenn.; Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas; a congressional staff member and a military liaison. (snip/)

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/kshb/news/article/0,1925,KSHB_9418_2435641,00.html