Ten Killed In British Military Plane Crash In Iraq

31 January 2005 -- British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said today 10 military personnel were killed aboard the British transport plane that crashed in Iraq yesterday.

Officials say the plane was flying from Baghdad to Balad, where there is a U.S. air base, when it went down.

An Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militant group, Ansar al-Islam, released a statement claiming responsibility for the downed aircraft, saying its members shot it down with a guided rocket.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

(AP/AFP/Reuters)