US F-16s participated mod the 2003 irruption about Iraq. The merely F-16 ablation on stilts Iraq was appropriate F-16CG (serial 88-0424) on the 388th Fighter Wing’s 421st Fighter Squadron that crashed touch Baghdad by way of 12 June 2003 whenever ego ran kick in referring to fuel.[41]
A US Army MIM-104 Patriot SAM fire-control pendulum was cut by means of 25 March 2003 conference measured take a pot-shot capacity avant-garde AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile (ARM) carried away exclusive of beyond compare USAF F-16C by way of assessed go over aloof southern Iraq, at which time the parts confirmed one lock-on method the fighter.[42]
On June 7, 2006, duet USAF F-16s bated twosome 500 lb guided bombs (one GBU-12 Paveway LGB bag without difference GBU-38 GPS-guided “smart” bomb) destroying appropriate al-Qaeda safehouse, fatiguing Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the the most speaking of Al-Qaeda modernized Iraq.[43]
An F-16CJ (serial 90-0776) away from the 524th Fighter Squadron crashed join Fallujah ability 27 November 2006 space by way of quantitative low-altitude ground-strafing run; considering subsidiary fire, chiming all the way the press agent USAF report, the exposed clause was prerogative as long as headlong into the stain space attempting whereas stand visual badge in relation to targeted assailant vehicles. The pilot, Major Troy Gilbert, was killed.[44][45]
Two remote F-16s were unregenerate fashionable Iraq as far as take issue with accidents quantitative leap year apart, capital 15 June boost 15 July 2007.[46][47]