Washington:
An American pilot and a weapons officer were safely rescued in Libya on Tuesday after their warplane crashed near Benghazi, but the United States Marine Corps dropped two 500-pound bombs during the recovery and faced questions about whether Marines had fired on villagers.
In an episode that reflected the unpredictability of an air campaign designed to keep American troops off the ground, the United States military said that an equipment malfunction rather than enemy fire brought down the plane. A Marine Corps officer in the Mediterranean strongly denied that any shots were fired at civilians during the rescue, but Marine Corps officers at the Pentagon said they did not know what happened or whether any civilians were killed or injured when the bombs exploded.
United States military officials said the pilot was recovered by a Marine rescue team and was now aboard an American ship in the Mediterranean, the Kearsarge. The weapons officer was found on the ground by "the people of Libya," said Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, the tactical commander of the United States-led effort in the country. At a Pentagon briefing, Admiral Locklear did not describe them as rebels but made clear that they were not forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Gaddafi.
Admiral Locklear said the people treated the weapons officer "with dignity and respect." The officer is now in American custody, but the admiral declined to say more.
United States military officers said the plane took off from Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy late Monday on an airstrike mission to Libya. At some point over Benghazi, the jet experienced what military officials called an "equipment malfunction," and at about 11:30 p.m. local time on Monday (about 5:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday), both the pilot and the weapons officer ejected.
Their parachutes opened but landed them some distance apart near Benghazi, the military said. Although details remained murky on Tuesday, the Marine Corps said a rescue team that took off from the Kearsarge quickly located the pilot.
A Marine Corps officer said that the grounded pilot, who was in contact with rescue crews in the air, asked for bombs to be dropped as a precaution before the crews landed to pick him up. "My understanding is he asked for the ordnance to be delivered between where he was located and where he saw people coming toward him," the officer said, adding that the pilot evidently made the request "to keep what he thought was a force closing in on him from closing in on him."
In response, two Harrier attack jets that were part of the rescue team dropped two 500-pound bombs before a Marine Osprey helicopter landed to pick up the pilot, at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday local time. The Marine officer said he did not know if the people approaching the pilot were friendly or hostile or what damage the bombs had caused.
Channel 4 News in Britain reported that six villagers were shot by American troops in rescuing one of the two airmen. None of the villagers -- who were interviewed by a reporter in a nearby hospital -- were killed, although a small boy may need to have a leg amputated.
"No shots were fired," said Capt. Richard Ulsh, a Marine spokesman aboard the Kearsarge. "The Osprey is not armed, and the Marines barely got off the aircraft. I was in the landing center the whole time, where we were monitoring what was going on, and firing was never reported."
Neither he nor other Marine officials said specifically whether any shots were fired from the Harrier attack jets.
The military is investigating.