The World : Rebels Downed U.S. Plane

Guerrillas of the Polisario Front mistakenly shot down an American locust-spraying plane in the Western Sahara last Thursday, the Marxist rebels said in a statement to news agencies. All five American crew members aboard the DC-7 were killed when it was struck by missiles while flying from Senegal, where it had completed a spraying operation, to Morocco. A second DC-7 was also hit but managed to land safely. Expressing its “deepest regrets,” the front said its fighters thought the DC-7s were Moroccan C-130 military transports. It said its fighters had found the plane’s wreckage and were retrieving the victim’s bodies, which will be returned to their families. The front is fighting for Western Sahara’s independence from Morocco.