A US military plane taking off from Baghdad airport came under attack from two surface-to-air missiles, it has emerged. The heat-seeking missiles had no chance of hitting the transport plane, which was flying at an altitude of 4,000 metres (14,000 feet) at the time, said British military officials. The incident, in the early hours of Saturday, came just hours before American Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld left the airport at the end of a three-day visit to Iraq. This is not the first time planes using the airport have been targeted. A missile was fired at a transport plane last week, missing it by one kilometer. Rumsfeld's aide, Lawrence DiRita, said the two missiles were "fired at a C-141 taking off from Baghdad airport". "They detonated before they ever reached the plane," he added. Elsewhere, a mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attack was carried out on a village outside Tikrit late on Saturday. Though there were no immediate reports of any casualties, US soldiers said the attack seemed to be aimed at Iraqis who are collaborating with occupation forces based in the village just outside the town of Tikrit. "Its pretty unusual. Not in that its Iraqi on Iraqi. That's not new, but the method is unusual," Colonel James Hickey, commander of the 1st Brigade of the Fourth Infantry Division said. The mortars fired towards Awja landed in fields between two US bases, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russel, leader of the 1st battalion, 22nd regiment said. US soldiers reported over the radio they thought Iraqis were the targets because they said Saddam loyalists had drawn up a hitlist, that included some residents of the village. Rumsfeld, wrapping up a three-day inspection of Iraq on Saturday, insisted the Iraqi people take more responsibility for security in the US-occupied country. But he also acknowledged the litany of daily attacks on coalition troops there may have had its roots in the US failure to chase down Saddam's forces during the war and to anticipate the type of problems it would face afterwards. Coalition ground forces commander Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez insisted he had no need of reinforcements in Iraq, given the sort of low-intensity warfare being mounted against his troops. Sanchez acknowledged that his forces had faced some 15 attacks a day over the past five days, but said that in half of those the assailants used mortars or remotely detonated bombs and never came close enough to be engaged. Bush, his eyes fixed on the November 2004 presidential election campaign, has resolved to ask the UN for more help in Iraq. The Bush administration hopes the resolution will offer some relief to the 140,000 odd US troops deployed in the war-torn country as well as on the budgetary pressures being applied to the nation's finances. Elsewhere, five Arab states have so far given their formal approval for Iraq's US-backed leadership to attend an Arab foreign ministers' meeting, an Arab League official said. Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have approved the Iraqi interim Governing Council's request to represent Iraq at the meeting in Cairo on Tuesday and Wednesday. Arab states are split on whether to recognize the legitimacy of the Governing Council, which requested on August 24 to occupy Iraq's seat at the League, vacant since April. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Donald Rumsfeld speaks to the media in Baghdad Saturday Sept. 6, 2003. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer)