Report: U.S. Chopper Shot Down in Iraq [Archive]

Seraphim

12-09-2003, 08:23 AM

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_helicopter&cid=540&ncid=716

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Guerrillas hit a U.S. helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade Tuesday near Fallujah west of Baghdad, and the American military said the aircraft made a "controlled landing."

A military spokesman, who would not be named, said he had no details on casualties. The spokesman said the OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopter was hit at 2:30 p.m. local time.

Omar Ali, an Associated Press reporter, said two helicopters were flying in formation near the city, about 30 miles west of the capital, when one was hit by a grenade fired from the ground.

It went down immediately in an open field, Ali said. The aircraft appeared structurally intact, but smoke was billowing from it.

Two other helicopters with red crosses painted on the sides landed nearby a few minutes later, he said.

Fallujah, a hotbed of resistance to the U.S. occupation, sits in the heart of the dangerous Sunni Triangle where the majority of attacks on American forces have occurred since the ouster of former leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

In past weeks there have been two other deadly attacks on U.S. helicopters.

On Nov. 2, 16 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division died when insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter near Fallujah.

In the deadliest single incident so far for U.S. soldiers, two Black Hawk helicopters collided and crashed in the northern city of Mosul on Nov. 17, killing 17 soldiers. U.S. commanders said the crash was caused by ground fire.

The Kiowa, a small observation and reconnaissance helicopter commonly seen in the skies over Iraq (news - web sites)'s cities, carries one pilot and as many as four passengers.

Elsewhere Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives at the gates of a military barracks, injuring 41 American troops and six Iraqi civilians. Hours earlier, three soldiers died in a road accident in central Iraq, and three civilians died when a Baghdad mosque was rocketed.

The attack at the army base occurred at 4:45 a.m. local time when a car drove to the gate of the base in Talafar, 30 miles west of the northern city of Mosul. Guards at the gate and in a watchtower opened fire on the vehicle and moments later it blew up, leaving a large crater at the gate's entryway.

Later Tuesday, another suicide bomber blew himself up outside a U.S. Army compound near Baghdad, lightly injuring two soldiers, the U.S. military said.

Giving a boost to the U.S.-led occupation, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a plan to send about 1,000 soldiers to help in Iraq's reconstruction in that nation's biggest overseas troop deployment since World War II.

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Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Talafar, Iraq.

Edited again for update.