Body of U.S. Pilot Is Found

The body of a pilot on one of two fighter jets reported missing in Iraq has been found, and investigators concluded that the planes probably collided in flight, a senior defense official said Tuesday.

As the search for the other pilot continued, separate roadside bombs killed two American soldiers Tuesday in Baghdad, the U.S. military said today.

About 1,590 American service members have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

At the Pentagon, an official said Tuesday that an emergency beacon from one of the F/A-18 jets was detected on the ground about 15 miles southwest of Karbala, in southern Iraq. The official discussed some details on condition of anonymity.

The pilot’s body was found in his ejection seat, some distance from wreckage of his plane, another defense official said.

The single-seat Marine Corps jets had taken off from the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson on Monday. The U.S. military said there was no indication of hostile fire.

“The planes were flying too high to be shot down,” a military spokesman said in Baghdad.

The F/A-18s were at about 30,000 feet when communications were lost, the Pentagon official said.

Military officials also announced that two Bulgarian soldiers were killed Tuesday when their Humvee overturned near Basra. The soldiers were part of a coalition convoy traveling from Kuwait to Tallil, Iraq.

West of the capital, U.S. forces and Iraqi national guardsmen killed at least 14 suspected insurgents in the guerrilla stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. military said. It said the nationality of those killed was not known and suggested they may have been foreign fighters.

U.S. forces also killed 12 suspected insurgents in a firefight and bombing Monday in the town of Qaim, near the Syrian border. The military said six U.S. soldiers had been wounded.