Baghdad Invites U.S. to Investigate Pilot’s Loss

Iraq said it was ready to receive an American team to probe the fate of a U.S. pilot shot down over Iraq at the start of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher’s Navy attack jet crashed in a fireball Jan. 17, 1991.

Washington reclassified him from “killed” to “missing in action” last year following reports that he survived and was being held captive.

Iraq says Speicher is dead.

“To prove our good will in this regard and to refute repeated American allegations against Iraq, we express readiness of concerned Iraqi parties to receive an American team to visit Iraq to probe into the [U.S. pilot] issue,” an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said.