A U.S. Air Force jet with one pilot crashed in Iraq on Monday, the military said. The F-16CG was supporting coalition ground forces when it went down at about 1:35 p.m. in Anbar province, about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, the military said in a brief statement.
The statement had no information about the suspected cause of the crash or the fate of the pilot.
Mohammed Al-Obeidi, who lives in the nearby town of Karmah, said by telephone that he saw the jet flying up and down erratically before it nose-dived and exploded in a farm field.
He said other U.S. warplanes rushed to the crash site and were circling around it.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein's trial on genocide charges against the Kurds resumed Monday after a 19-day break.
Saddam sat quietly as the chief judge called a prosecution witness to take the stand. His six co-defendants — all former members of his regime — were present.
The deposed president and most of the other defendants were represented by court-appointed lawyers as defense counsel have been boycotting the trial for two months in protest against the court's refusal to give them more preparation time and other rulings.
Saddam and his co-defendants have pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the military offensive against the Kurds, known as Operation Anfal.
The prosecution says that about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the 1987-88 crackdown. Saddam and one other defendant have also pleaded innocent to genocide.
If convicted, Saddam and his co-defendants could be condemned to death.
In other developments:
Jordan's King Abdullah, set to host a meeting on Iraq with regional leaders and President Bush later this week, said Sunday, "we could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," citing conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the decades-long strife between the Palestinians and Israelis. "Therefore, it is time that we really take a strong step forward as part of the international community and make sure we avert the Middle East from a tremendous crisis that I fear, and I see could possibly happen in 2007," he told ABC's "This Week." The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan 10-member commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Democratic former Congressman Lee Hamilton, is working on a set of strategies for Iraq. The New York Times reported Sunday that the commission's draft report recommends aggressive regional diplomacy, including talks with Iran and Syria. Anonymous officials who had seen the draft report told the Times it does not specify any timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, although the commissioners are expected to debate the feasibility of such timetables. Three U.S. Army soldiers were killed and two wounded in Baghdad on Sunday, and two U.S. Marines died the day before in Anbar province, the area of western Iraq where many Sunni-insurgent groups are based. The killings raised to at least 2,878 the number of U.S. servicemen who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. In November alone, 59 American service members have been killed or died. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived for an official visit in Iran, where he is expected to seek its help in preventing Iraq's sectarian violence from sliding into an all-out civil war. His departure was delayed by a three-day curfew, which the government lifted on Monday. The U.S. wants Iran's mostly Shiite government to do more to help Iraq's Shiite-dominated government stem a surge in sectarian violence. Talabani is a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, but he had close ties with Iranian officials before Saddam Hussein was driven out by the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. In Sadr City on Monday about 250 people attended a memorial service outside a hospital morgue for 10 civilians who were shot and killed Sunday night by U.S. soldiers in the nearby suburb of Husseiniya, police and witnesses said. They spoke with Associated Press Television News on condition of anonymity to protect their own security. The U.S. Command said it could not immediately confirm that such an attack had taken place. In the southern district of Dora, one of the city's most violent areas, armed men in two cars attacked a police patrol Monday morning, wounding six policemen, said police 1st Lt. Abdul Razzaq. Half an hour later, other gunmen attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, wounding four soldiers, he said. In western Baghdad, police found the bodies of two Iraqis who had been kidnapped, blindfolded and shot, said police 1st Lt. Miathem Abdel-Razaq. Each week, the mutilated bodies of scores of Shiites and Sunnis are found across Iraq, many of them the victims of revenge killings. Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, police was mostly quiet Monday morning, after two days of fierce fighting, police said. On Sunday, at least 17 insurgents were killed and 15 detained, police said. Twenty civilians were kidnapped and three bodies found in the province. During Saturday's fighting in Baqouba, police killed at least 36 insurgents and wounded dozens after scores of militants armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked government buildings in the city center, police said. British Defense Secretary Des Browne said Monday that "dividing Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish areas might appear seductive but it would not solve sectarian tensions." In an address to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Browne said, "It is vital now that Iraq's neighbors give it full support and undivided support." He added: "Even Syria, whose motives the international community has often had cause to question, has shown signs of constructive engagement." Poland's president said Monday that Warsaw will pull its remaining 900 soldiers out of Iraq by the end of 2007, but no specific date has been set.