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Peru shoots down US aircraft
Two US citizens were killed when a Peruvian military
aircraft shot down a private plane carrying American missionaries over Peru's
Amazon jungle region.
The plane crashed near the town of Pebas,
about 1,130km (700 miles) north-east of Lima.
A US embassy spokesman said the Preuvian fighter mistakenly believed it to be
an aircraft carrying narcotics.
Radioprogramas de Peru named the dead as Monica de Power and her
seven-month-old adopted daughter, Piedad. The pilot, Kevin Donalson, and another
US citizen on board were injured.
A Pennsylvania-based missionary group, the Association of Baptists for World
Evangelism, said the plane carrying its workers was being flown by an
experienced pilot and was clearly marked.
A spokesman told the BBC he had been informed that the plane caught fire in
the attack. He said it crash-landed in the River Amazon, where it was fired on
again.
The Peruvian Defence Ministry said the plane ignored international
identification procedures, and was shot at as a last resort.
"After carrying out international identification and interception procedure -
which the pilot ignored - the Peruvian air force plane opened fire as a last
resort," the ministry said in a statement.
The American embassy in Lima has sent officials to investigate the incident.
"We deeply regret this tragedy and are in the process of determining the
extent of loss of life and injury to the passengers and crew," a State
Department official said.
The jungle area where the plane was shot down is close to the border with
Colombia, where left-wing guerrillas and drug smugglers are active.
Between 1994 and 1997, Peru shot down about 25 suspected drug planes on their
way from camps in Peru's Amazon to Colombian cocaine refineries.
The US is pouring millions of dollars into a controversial war against drugs
in the region.
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