Four members of the US military were injured when a transport plane crashed into a wall Monday at Camp Taji north of Baghdad, the US-led International Coalition said.
“An Air Force C-130 Hercules had slipped out of a runway and struck a wall, damaging the aircraft and causing a fire onboard that was then put out by a response team,” it said in a statement.
The four military personnel have sustained “non-life threatening injuries” and were treated at Camp Taji’s medical facility, according to the coalition.
The aircraft involved was from the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing based at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait.
The plane’s crash comes on the eve of strategic talks between Baghdad and Washington on Wednesday amid strong Iraqi political divisions.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein met Monday with US Ambassador to Baghdad Matthew Tueller and confirmed the ministry's preparations for the start of the talks.
The first stage is expected to last for two days and mainly tackle the US military presence in Iraq.
Pro-Iran Shiite factions insist that the first item on the agenda of the talks be the withdrawal of American forces.
However, the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi and other Sunni and Kurdish parties look forward to amending the strategic agreement that was signed between the two sides in 2008.
Head of the National al-Sanad bloc MP Ahmad al-Asadi said Parliament is working to form a committee to follow-up talks between Washington and Baghdad and to implement a legislative decision stipulating the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the country.
Some Shiite factions demand the full withdrawal of US troops as a condition for holding friendly relations with Washington. Other Iraqi Shiite armed factions, which are close to Iran, even reject any type of relations with the Americans.
“The strategic talks are very important for the new Iraqi government,” national security professor at Nahrain University Dr. Hussein Allawi told Asharq Al-Awsat.
He said that at this stage, talks should focus on finance, education, defense, the central bank, health and oil.
Given the contradictory Iraqi stances, “Kadhimi will be very cautious during the talks,” Allawi said.
