U.S. Downs 2nd Iraqi Warplane : Persian Gulf: Air Force fighters attack jet flying in defiance of tentative cease-fire accord. White House insists it is not meddling in rebellion against Hussein.

For the second time in 48 hours, U.S. Air Force fighters shot down an Iraqi warplane Friday as Washington stepped up pressure on a besieged President Saddam Hussein.

In Friday’s shooting, a Soviet-made Iraqi SU-22 was downed near the northern oil-producing city of Kirkuk, one of the sites of a fierce uprising against Hussein by Kurdish rebels, who claim that the Iraqi dictator’s troops have used aircraft to bomb insurgent forces.

The White House vowed to continue shooting down any Iraqi fixed-wing military aircraft that take off in violation of a preliminary Gulf War cease-fire that specifically bars Iraq from flying these warplanes. Bush Administration officials continued to insist, however, that the United States is not meddling in the Iraqi rebellion.

“Two up, two down,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said of the week’s double shooting.

Two F-15C fighters intercepted the Iraqi SU-22--known in North Atlantic Treaty Organization terminology as a Fitter--shortly before noon Friday near Kirkuk, 165 miles north of Baghdad, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command in Riyadh. One of the American aircraft fired a heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder into the Iraqi aircraft.

“We did not see a parachute” that would have indicated the pilot had ejected, said Maj. Keith Gillett, a spokesman for the Central Command.

A second single-engine, propeller-driven PC-7 trainer was flying alongside the Fitter but was not engaged. The pilot bailed out of the trainer when the Fitter was shot down, Central Command said.

Other Persian Gulf developments Friday included:

Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that ethnic rebellions under way in Iraq’s northern and southern provinces could wind up undermining--rather than advancing--America’s goal of seeing Hussein ousted from power. He said the uprisings might give Hussein a “rallying cry” to unify the Iraqi military in opposition to the rebels. (Story, A6)

Opposition leaders in Syria said the Iraqi government has imposed a virtual state of siege in Baghdad. They reported that guerrillas were conducting hit-and-run actions against the regime in the capital city. They also said that Kurdish rebels fighting in Mosul, Iraq’s third city, are close to taking control of that center, which they described as Hussein’s last important stronghold in the north.

Reuters news agency, citing a senior allied military source, reported that Iran has told Iraq it will not return 137 Iraqi military aircraft that took refuge in Iran during the Persian Gulf War. The source said that Tehran formally notified Baghdad it was keeping the planes in partial compensation for damage Iran suffered in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. The report could not be independently confirmed.

Iraqi and allied military officials, meeting in Riyadh, agreed on a plan to exchange all remaining Gulf War prisoners during the next few weeks.

Despite efforts by the Bush Administration to maintain arm’s length from the unrest in Iraq, the shooting down of Iraqi warplanes on Wednesday and Friday is likely to fuel debate over whether the United States intends to aid anti-Hussein rebels, directly or indirectly.

Friday’s incident was almost identical to that of Wednesday, in which an F-15C fighter shot downed an SU-22 Fitter over Tikrit, the northern Iraqi town which is the birthplace of Hussein and most of the members of his inner ruling circle.

American officials said both jets were flying in defiance of the tentative cease-fire accord between allied and Iraqi forces. In meetings held in the desert outpost of Safwan, in U.S.-occupied southern Iraq, American commanders told the Iraqis that any combat aircraft that flies will be shot down.

“This is the second violation by the Iraqis (flying) fixed-wing aircraft, which is a breach of terms agree upon with Iraqi military officers,” the Central Command said.

Fitzwater suggested that the planes posed a threat to allied forces occupying Iraq.

“These are fighter-bombers,” he said. “They have speed and destructive capability that would make it very difficult to judge what their purposes are once they get in the air. That poses a threat to United States forces and coalition forces throughout the region. That’s why we view it so seriously.”

Fitzwater added: “We will continue to take down any fixed-wing aircraft that come up. But we do not believe this involves us in the internal conflict in Iraq in any way.”

Washington has also accused Iraq of using helicopter gunships against anti-government rebels and warned Baghdad against the practice.

Inside Iraq

Many of Iraq’s best warplanes fled to havens in neutral Iran during the aerial campaign of the Persian Gulf War’s initial weeks. Another 97 Iraqi military aircraft were destroyed by allied warplanes during the air war.

Tehran denied at the time that it had made any deal with Baghdad to shelter its aircraft, saying it would hold the planes until the war ended and then discuss their fate with Iraq.

But Iran, ruled by fundamentalist Shiite Muslim clergymen, has lately been increasingly outspoken in support of Shiite rebels now fighting to topple Hussein from centers around Basra, Iraq’s second city, and other parts of southern Iraq. This fact lends credence to the report that Tehran may have decided to confiscate Iraqi planes now sheltered in its territory.

The Iraqi warplane shot down Friday was flying near Kirkuk, where troops loyal to Hussein have been locked in battle with Kurdish rebels. A spokesman for the exiled Iraqi Kurdistan Front reiterated earlier Kurdish claims that Kirkuk had fallen into rebel hands and that Hussein’s 1st Army Corps had surrendered. The Kurds have also accused government troops of bombing rebelling forces with napalm.

Few of these specific reports could be verified independently, but on Friday, ABC news correspondent Charles Glass filed a report from northern Iraq saying that “so far, Kurdish rebel claims to control large areas of northern Iraq are proving true.”

Glass’s report, broadcast on “World News Tonight With Peter Jennings,” was filed from Zakhu, one of the first towns reported seized by Kurdish rebels earlier this month.

“Mile after mile of Kurdish countryside has been abandoned by the Iraqi army,” Glass reported. “Fortresses and watchtowers that guarded these (mountain) passes . . . are now empty. The roadsides are littered with military equipment left behind by an Iraqi army whose members have either surrendered, deserted, or joined the rebellion. Iraqi mines dug out of the road lay where Kurdish guerrillas have set them. Iraqi tanks are empty and still. Captured weapons are everywhere.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that Kurdish rebels made new gains Friday and that, to combat them, additional government forces were being transferred to northern Iraq from the south.

In Baghdad, large numbers of government special forces and security personnel have been deployed to maintain relative calm, but sporadic clashes continue in the city, Boucher said.

Radio broadcasts, quoting reports from Iran, said a state of emergency was imposed in Baghdad.

Prisoners of War

After a marathon, all-night meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh, Iraqi and allied military officials agreed on a plan to exchange all remaining Gulf War prisoners during the next few weeks. The pact appears to resolve a major stumbling block in the way of working out a formal, permanent cease-fire.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Riyadh said that Iraqi soldiers taken prisoner during the war would return home by bus at a rate of 1,000 a day. The allies hold nearly 60,000 Iraqi POWs, and repatriation has so far proceeded at a snail’s pace.

Before the meeting, Iraq had agreed to turn over the approximately 5,000 Kuwaiti civilians and soldiers that it acknowledged holding. The first group of 1,135 of the Kuwaiti soldiers were bused in a convoy to northern Saudi Arabia and then on Friday flown to Kuwait city.