Gunfire hit two US military airplanes on Saturday wounding at least three military personnel and heavily damaging at least one of the airplanes, US officials said. The aircraft took incoming fire and turned around and headed to Kampala.
The US military aircraft were heading to Bor, the capital of the state of Jonglei occupied by the defected group headed by Peter Gadet. His faction of the SPLA is controlling the airstrip. Media in US report that a fourth American service member was reported to be in critical condition, others say no one was critically wounded.
The army staff were flown on to Nairobi for medical treatment, the officials said. It was not immediately known what the US aircraft were doing in Bor. One official said it appeared the aircraft were Ospreys CV-22, the type of aircraft that can fly like a helicopter and a plane. According the official statement, the planes were being sent to help evacuate American citizens from South Sudan, NBC News reported.
South Sudan’s military spokesman, Col. Philip Aguer, said that government troops are not in control of Bor, so the attack on the US aircraft has to be blamed on renegade soldiers.
File photo: Oprey aircraft (Wikipedia)