LIBYA - US jet crashes, fighting continues

Bu Mariem (AP):

An American fighter jet crashed in Libya's rebel-held east, both crew ejecting safely as the aircraft spun from the sky during the third night of the United States (US) and European air campaign.

Moammar Gaddafi's forces shelled rebels regrouping in the dunes outside a key eastern city yesterday, and his snipers and tanks roamed the last major opposition-held city in the west.

The crash was the first major loss for the US and European military air campaign, which over three nights appears to have hobbled Gaddafi's air defences and artillery and rescued the rebels from impending defeat. But the opposition force, with more enthusiasm than discipline, has struggled to exploit the gains. The international alliance, too, has shown fractures as officials struggle to arti-culate an endgame.

China and Russia, which abstained from the UN Security Council vote authorising the international intervention, called for a ceasefire yesterday, after a night when international strikes hit Tripoli, destroying a military seaport in the capital.

The US Air Force F-15E came down in a field of winter wheat and thistles outside the town of Bu Mariem, about 24 miles (38 kilometres) east of the rebel capital of Benghazi.

crew members safe

By yesterday afternoon, the plane's body was mostly burned to ash, with only the wings and tail fins intact. US officials say both crew members were safe in American hands.

"I saw the plane spinning round and round as it came down," said Mahdi el-Amruni, who rushed to the crash site with other villagers. "It was in flames. They died away, then it burst in to flames again."

One of the pilots parachuted into a rocky field and hid in a sheep pen on Hamid Moussa el-Amruni's family farm.

The pilot left in a car with the Benghazi national council, taking with him the water and juice the family provided. They kept his helmet and the parachute.

A second plane strafed the field where the pilot went down. Hamid Moussa el-Amruni himself was shot, suffered shrapnel wounds in his leg and back, but he could still walk. He used an old broomstick as a crutch and said he held no grudge, believing it was an accident.

He said the second crew member came down in a different field and was picked up by a helicopter, an account that coincided with the US explanation of the rescue.