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Sa 14 Used In Attack On Dhl Plane

Juan Cole 11/26/2003

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SA-14 used in Attack on DHL Plane

A videotape of guerrillas’ attack on the DHL plane at Baghdad airport was given to a French reporter for Le Nouvel Observateur. It was seen by AFP, which reports that it clearly shows the use of an SA-14 Gremlin missile launcher, not an old SA-7 as the US military reported. (The US military was either misinformed or was deliberately attempting to forestall a panic, since it is very bad news for aviators that the guerrillas have anything more than SA-7s). Planes small enough to do so had been having to perform tight spiral landings as it was.

AFP reports, “The shoulder-launched missile is seen shooting up into the sky after being fired by one of the cell and then homing in on the Airbus-300 freighter. The vapor trail makes a sharp U-turn as the missile homes in on the infrared or radio signals from the scheduled Baghdad to Dubai courier flight. , , After a break, the video resumes with footage of the stricken airliner diving back down to Baghdad airport, in clearly amateur footage shot through electricity lines.”

SA-14s belong to a family of Russian-designed shoulder-launched missiles called Strela (“Arrow”). SA-7s, or the first Strela, were manufactured in several countries, including Pakistan. The SA-14, called Strela 3, weighs 35 pounds and has a range of 2,000 yards when used against an approaching jet. (Thanks to Tom Collier).

When I first heard this story very early Saturday morning EST, I speculated that something beyond an SA-7 must have been used, and was criticized for doing so by one blogger who is an expert in military technology. I don’t claim any expertise in that field, but I do claim several conversations with people who know about it and they have been worried for a while about SA-14 and SA-16 attacks.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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