CRASH OF MIRAGE FIGHTER MIGHT GET IRANIANS RED HANDS
Mash-had, Iran, 10 July (IPS-IRNA) A French-made "Mirage F-1" two-men military plane crashed in a region in north-eastern Iran Tuesday, killing the pilot and injuring the co-pilot, the official news agency IRNA quoted eyewitnesses in the region.
They said the plane crashed in "Kouy-e Amir al-Mo’meneen" region near the northeastern city of Mash-had, the capital of the Khorasan Province, at around 11 a.m. (0630 GMT).
The pilot failed to open his parachute when he had to eject due to "yet unspecified reason" and was killed but the co-pilot who managed to open his parachute before the crash was injured when he hit the ground.
Military officials have declined to comment on the cause of the crash.
But informed sources said the plane must have been one of the fighters sent to Iran by Iraq at the beginning of the Golf War to save them from destruction by allied forces bombardment.
Iraq claims it had sent all together more than one hundred military and civilian aircrafts to Iran, including Boeing passenger planes as well as a number of Soviet-made Migs, Illyushin, Sukhoy bombers and French-made Mirage F-1.
But Iran said only a few had reached Iranian airports, most of them crash landing because of lack of fuel or other technical problems, and, anyhow, refused to send them back when Baghdad claimed them after the war.
Supplied exclusively by the United States before the Islamic revolution of 1979 and the Soviet Union and China after, Iran had never any French-made military planes in the service of its military.
The crash of the Mirage F-1 Tuesday confirms the Iraqi claim that not only the planes had landed safely and in good conditions, but Iran is using them.
The aircraft is said to have been taking part in a "clean-up" operation in the border region against armed Afghan bandits involved in drug running.
Iran is a major route of drugs originating from Afghanistan or Pakistan on their way to markets in the Persian Gulf, Europe and onwards.
At the same time, official say more than 3 millions Iranians, many of them young ones, are opium-addicted, but independent sources put the number of people addicted to opium and mostly heroin as much higher.
Opium, heroin, hashish and morphine are the prohibited drugs that enter the country in transit and single busts involving a ton or more of these drugs are not uncommon.
The government has spent nearly $20 million during the past year in the fight against drug smuggling and has armed thousands of villagers along its eastern border to help combat the traffickers.
Official reports say 3,100 Iranian police officers have been killed in drug-related battles throughout Iran over the past 20 years. ENDS PLANE CRASH 10701