Baghdad Fighting Thwarts Jordanian Flights

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_iraq_flights&cid=540&ncid=1480

AMMAN, Jordan - Heavy fighting outside Baghdad International Airport prevented two Jordanian passenger planes from landing Monday, the airline spokesman said.


Royal Jordanian's planes made quick turns over Baghdad, where the airport's control tower denied the aircraft permission to land because of heavy fighting nearby, a spokesman said on condition of anonymity.


The two flights — in the morning and at noon — returned to Amman safely, he said. The second flight carried Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan, the minister told reporters in Amman afterward. Shaalan was trying to return to Iraq (news - web sites) after visiting Jordan.


Mortar shells slammed into an Iraqi National Guard camp near the airport. There was no report of casualties in the attack, one of several that occurred six days before Iraq's crucial national elections, the first since the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in 2003.