NcDeuce
11-03-2003, 10:17 AM
U.S. Grounds Daytime Chinook Flights in Iraq
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The U.S. military grounded all daytime operations by CH-47 Chinook helicopters Monday after Iraqi insurgents downed one the day before, killing 16 soldiers and wounding 20 others.
Fox News has confirmed that Chinook operations will be limited to night flights only.
"Any time you have an attack on a — successful attack on a helicopter, you have to say it is a tragic day for those people who were killed and wounded. We know that. But there are going to be days like that," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday."
U.S. coalition officials blamed either Saddam loyalists or foreign fighters.
Rumsfeld said that most, if not all, of the attacks on U.S. and coalition troops and the Iraqis working with them were being launched by remnants of the Baathist regime, Islamist groups such as Ansar al-Islam (search) and fighters from other Arab and Muslim countries.
"They want to take back, and they're not going to," the defense secretary said. "They're not going to come close to taking that country back."
The Chinook was shot down Sunday outside the anti-U.S. hotbed of Fallujah (search), located in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" (search) north and west of Baghdad. The troops on board had been headed to Baghdad International Airport, from where they were scheduled to leave the country for two weeks' rest and recreation.
The attack was the single deadliest strike on U.S. forces since the end of major combat in April.
Two days before Sunday's attack, Iraqi insurgents warned of new attacks using "modern and advanced methods."
Three other Americans were killed Sunday, including one 1st Armored Division soldier in Baghdad and two U.S. civilians working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fallujah. All three were victims of roadside bombs, the military said.
After the Chinook attack Sunday, five shells exploded in different neighborhoods in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing one Iraqi and injuring eight, Jalal Jawher, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (search) official, said Monday.
"They were randomly fired. There are no U.S. bases in those areas," he said.
On Saturday, fire broke out at an oil pipeline in Samara, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, after it was hit by a bomb, an oil official said. The pipeline runs from northern Kirkuk to a Baghdad refinery.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/106684/6_25_110303_iraq.jpg
[i]A soldier injured in Sunday's attack in Iraq is brought out of a plane on a stretcher at Ramstein Air Base in Germany Monday.
second explosion occurred Saturday on a pipeline between Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and Beiji.
A C-17 transport plane carrying between 18 and 30 soldiers wounded in the helicopter downing arrived for treatment Monday at Landstuhl Medical Center (search) in Germany, the biggest U.S. military hospital in Europe.
The commander of the medical center, Rhonda Cornum, said that of the 16 people admitted, 11 were in the intensive-care unit. While their conditions were still being evaluated, she added, they were considered stable. One victim is female.
As with many helicopter accidents, Cornum said, the victims suffered many broken bones, loss of consciousness and some head injuries.
A 17th soldier injured in the attack was to arrive Tuesday morning, said hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
Chinook Downed
In the helicopter downing, two shoulder-fired missiles streaked into the sky and slammed into the rear of the giant chopper, witnesses said. Another Chinook continued unharmed.
The missiles seemed to have been fired from a palm grove about 500 yards away, said Thaer Ali, 21. At least one hit the Chinook, which came down in a field in the farming village of Hasai, a few miles south of Fallujah, witnesses said.
Hours later, thick smoke rose from the blackened, smoldering hulk as U.S. soldiers swarmed over the crash site, evacuating the injured, retrieving evidence and cordoning off the area. Near the Euphrates River farming village of Hasi, a giant crane lifted pieces of wreckage onto a truck.
"I saw the helicopter burning. I ran toward it because I wanted to help put out the fire, but couldn't get near because of American soldiers," said Yassin Mohamed, who heard the explosion and ran out of his house, a half-mile away.
In an unsigned leaflet posted Friday in area mosques, insurgents urged people to avoid public places on Saturday and Sunday.
"Special operations against occupation forces might be carried out by using modern and advanced methods," the leaflet said.
Unshakable Will
President Bush, who was at his Texas ranch Sunday, did not personally comment on the attacks. But White House officials sought to assure Americans of the administration's resolve to win the guerrilla war in Iraq.
"The terrorists seek to kill coalition forces and innocent Iraqis because they want us to run, but our will and resolve are unshakable," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
"Sept. 11 taught us that we must confront terrorists and outlaw regimes with weapons of mass murder before it is too late ... the only way to win the war on terror is to take the fight to the enemy."
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his regret over the shootdown, saying the past week had been a "particularly grim seven days" in terms of casualties, a spokesman said Monday.
L. Paul Bremer, the head of the occupation in Iraq, repeated demands that Syria and Iran prevent fighters from crossing their borders into Iraq.
"They could do a much better job of helping us seal that border and keeping terrorists out of Iraq," he said in a televised interview. The "enemies of freedom" in Iraq "are using more sophisticated techniques to attack our forces."
U.S. officials have been warning of the danger of shoulder-fired missiles, thousands of which have gone missing from Iraqi arsenals. Such missiles are believed to have downed two U.S. copters since May 1, wounding one American.
The CH-47 helicopter belonged to the 12th Aviation Brigade, a Germany-based unit that supports the 82nd Airborne Division Task Force operating west of Baghdad. A military spokesman at Fort Carson, Colo., said the Chinooks were carrying soldiers from Fort Carson; Fort Sill, Okla.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; and Fort Hood, Texas.
"Many were looking forward to a break in the action," said Lt. Col. Thomas Budzyna. "Unfortunately, they faced something else."
The Pentagon announced Friday it was expanding the rest and recreation leave program for troops in Iraq. As of Sunday, the number of soldiers departing daily to the United States via a transit facility in neighboring Kuwait would be increased from 280 to 480.
The downing and the soldier's death in Baghdad brought to at least 139 the number of American soldiers killed by hostile fire since Bush declared an end to combat on May 1.
Around 377 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/106651/16_24_110203_chinook3.jpg
AF or Army MH-60 near the area after a Chinook helicopter was shot down.
Time to strap on the NVG's
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The U.S. military grounded all daytime operations by CH-47 Chinook helicopters Monday after Iraqi insurgents downed one the day before, killing 16 soldiers and wounding 20 others.
Fox News has confirmed that Chinook operations will be limited to night flights only.
"Any time you have an attack on a — successful attack on a helicopter, you have to say it is a tragic day for those people who were killed and wounded. We know that. But there are going to be days like that," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday."
U.S. coalition officials blamed either Saddam loyalists or foreign fighters.
Rumsfeld said that most, if not all, of the attacks on U.S. and coalition troops and the Iraqis working with them were being launched by remnants of the Baathist regime, Islamist groups such as Ansar al-Islam (search) and fighters from other Arab and Muslim countries.
"They want to take back, and they're not going to," the defense secretary said. "They're not going to come close to taking that country back."
The Chinook was shot down Sunday outside the anti-U.S. hotbed of Fallujah (search), located in the so-called "Sunni Triangle" (search) north and west of Baghdad. The troops on board had been headed to Baghdad International Airport, from where they were scheduled to leave the country for two weeks' rest and recreation.
The attack was the single deadliest strike on U.S. forces since the end of major combat in April.
Two days before Sunday's attack, Iraqi insurgents warned of new attacks using "modern and advanced methods."
Three other Americans were killed Sunday, including one 1st Armored Division soldier in Baghdad and two U.S. civilians working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fallujah. All three were victims of roadside bombs, the military said.
After the Chinook attack Sunday, five shells exploded in different neighborhoods in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing one Iraqi and injuring eight, Jalal Jawher, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (search) official, said Monday.
"They were randomly fired. There are no U.S. bases in those areas," he said.
On Saturday, fire broke out at an oil pipeline in Samara, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, after it was hit by a bomb, an oil official said. The pipeline runs from northern Kirkuk to a Baghdad refinery.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/106684/6_25_110303_iraq.jpg
[i]A soldier injured in Sunday's attack in Iraq is brought out of a plane on a stretcher at Ramstein Air Base in Germany Monday.
second explosion occurred Saturday on a pipeline between Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and Beiji.
A C-17 transport plane carrying between 18 and 30 soldiers wounded in the helicopter downing arrived for treatment Monday at Landstuhl Medical Center (search) in Germany, the biggest U.S. military hospital in Europe.
The commander of the medical center, Rhonda Cornum, said that of the 16 people admitted, 11 were in the intensive-care unit. While their conditions were still being evaluated, she added, they were considered stable. One victim is female.
As with many helicopter accidents, Cornum said, the victims suffered many broken bones, loss of consciousness and some head injuries.
A 17th soldier injured in the attack was to arrive Tuesday morning, said hospital spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
Chinook Downed
In the helicopter downing, two shoulder-fired missiles streaked into the sky and slammed into the rear of the giant chopper, witnesses said. Another Chinook continued unharmed.
The missiles seemed to have been fired from a palm grove about 500 yards away, said Thaer Ali, 21. At least one hit the Chinook, which came down in a field in the farming village of Hasai, a few miles south of Fallujah, witnesses said.
Hours later, thick smoke rose from the blackened, smoldering hulk as U.S. soldiers swarmed over the crash site, evacuating the injured, retrieving evidence and cordoning off the area. Near the Euphrates River farming village of Hasi, a giant crane lifted pieces of wreckage onto a truck.
"I saw the helicopter burning. I ran toward it because I wanted to help put out the fire, but couldn't get near because of American soldiers," said Yassin Mohamed, who heard the explosion and ran out of his house, a half-mile away.
In an unsigned leaflet posted Friday in area mosques, insurgents urged people to avoid public places on Saturday and Sunday.
"Special operations against occupation forces might be carried out by using modern and advanced methods," the leaflet said.
Unshakable Will
President Bush, who was at his Texas ranch Sunday, did not personally comment on the attacks. But White House officials sought to assure Americans of the administration's resolve to win the guerrilla war in Iraq.
"The terrorists seek to kill coalition forces and innocent Iraqis because they want us to run, but our will and resolve are unshakable," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
"Sept. 11 taught us that we must confront terrorists and outlaw regimes with weapons of mass murder before it is too late ... the only way to win the war on terror is to take the fight to the enemy."
In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed his regret over the shootdown, saying the past week had been a "particularly grim seven days" in terms of casualties, a spokesman said Monday.
L. Paul Bremer, the head of the occupation in Iraq, repeated demands that Syria and Iran prevent fighters from crossing their borders into Iraq.
"They could do a much better job of helping us seal that border and keeping terrorists out of Iraq," he said in a televised interview. The "enemies of freedom" in Iraq "are using more sophisticated techniques to attack our forces."
U.S. officials have been warning of the danger of shoulder-fired missiles, thousands of which have gone missing from Iraqi arsenals. Such missiles are believed to have downed two U.S. copters since May 1, wounding one American.
The CH-47 helicopter belonged to the 12th Aviation Brigade, a Germany-based unit that supports the 82nd Airborne Division Task Force operating west of Baghdad. A military spokesman at Fort Carson, Colo., said the Chinooks were carrying soldiers from Fort Carson; Fort Sill, Okla.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; and Fort Hood, Texas.
"Many were looking forward to a break in the action," said Lt. Col. Thomas Budzyna. "Unfortunately, they faced something else."
The Pentagon announced Friday it was expanding the rest and recreation leave program for troops in Iraq. As of Sunday, the number of soldiers departing daily to the United States via a transit facility in neighboring Kuwait would be increased from 280 to 480.
The downing and the soldier's death in Baghdad brought to at least 139 the number of American soldiers killed by hostile fire since Bush declared an end to combat on May 1.
Around 377 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/106651/16_24_110203_chinook3.jpg
AF or Army MH-60 near the area after a Chinook helicopter was shot down.
Time to strap on the NVG's