Seraphim
01-02-2004, 11:08 AM
http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3708151&p1=0
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military helicopter crashed west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier and wounding another, the U.S. military said. The cause was not known.
Meantime, ethnic tensions flared again in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, leading to at least one death.
A policeman who witnessed the helicopter crash, which occurred about 32 miles west of Baghdad near the volatile town of Fallujah, told ******* the aircraft was shot down, although the U.S. military could not immediately confirm that.
“We were in a joint patrol with U.S. troops to remove land mines and I saw a helicopter hovering in the sky which was hit by a missile,” policeman Mohammad Abdul Aziz said. “It was split into two and went down in flames.”
A U.S. military spokeswoman said the helicopter, an OH-58 observation chopper, came down around 12:50 p.m. (4:50 a.m. ET) near Fallujah but had no further details. She said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
Wreckage strewn across field
******* television pictures showed pieces of the aircraft scattered across a plowed field. U.S. forces cordoned off the area as helicopters flew overhead keeping watch.
Insurgents have shot down several U.S. helicopters in recent months, including three Black Hawks and a Chinook transporter in November, killing a total of 39 U.S. soldiers.
Falluja, in the heart of the Sunni triangle, has been the site of near-constant attacks on U.S. forces since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein last April. U.S. officials blame the attacks on insurgents loyal to the former regime.
In Kirkuk, meanwhile, at least one man was killed and another was wounded overnight as police and protesters clashed in the city, where Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen are all vying for more political power.
Earlier this week, at least five people were killed when gunfire erupted as Turkmens and Arabs faced off with the mainly Kurdish police during a protest against a plan to include Kirkuk in a Kurdish administrative unit.
Kirkuk police commander Shirko Shakir said a protest late on Thursday led to an exchange of gunfire with police, who detained a wounded Arab gunman. Another man, whose ethnicity Shakir declined to specify, was found killed in the area where the latest protest and clashes occurred, he said.
Saddam loyalists blamed for violence
“From the amount of shooting we assume that there are more wounded and killed whose bodies they took away, and we are watching hospitals and private doctors for them,” he told *******, blaming the violence on provocateurs loyal to Saddam.
“One had ’Saddam’ tattooed on his arms and hands, and that area has pockets of mercenaries and Fedayeen,” he said, referring to the ousted strongman’s militia.
Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk are bitterly opposed to a plan by Kurds on Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council to grant significant autonomy to a Kurdish area based in three provinces they wrested from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War, and which would include Kirkuk.
U.S. and Iraqi officials also were continuing to investigate the New Year’s Eve car bombing of an upscale Baghdad restaurant, which killed eight people.
U.S. military officials said the bombing was a sign that opponents of the U.S.-led occupation forces may be shifting to civilian targets.
The so-called “hard targets” in Baghdad — like coalition complexes and Iraqi police stations — are increasingly well guarded, pushing insurgents toward soft targets, like Nabil Restaurant, said a U.S. military officer with the 1st Armored Division. He spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
“When terrorists can target coalition forces or Iraqi police,” they will, said Lt. Gen. Ahmed Kadhem, deputy Iraqi interior minister and Baghdad chief of police. “If they can’t, they go to an easier target, aiming at civilians.”
He said security was being increased around hospitals and government buildings and called on schools to put up checkpoints and keep cars off their campuses.
Assailants have previously bombed civilian targets, including the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Both organizations pulled most of their foreign staff out of Iraq after those deadly attacks.
Restaurant was easy target
In a city where sandbagged checkpoints, cement barriers and armed guards protect many potential targets, the Nabil Restaurant was easy prey.
Situated on a busy street in the upscale Karrada neighborhood, it was protected by a lone armed guard and had no cement barriers or sandbags to shield wealthy patrons from the blast of the car bomb that detonated Wednesday night as Iraqis and Westerners celebrated.
Col. Ralph Baker, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, said the blast was caused by a car ****y-trapped with about 500 pounds of explosives. He said reports that it was a suicide bomb attack were false, and that they had questioned witnesses who said they saw a man running from a vehicle before the explosion.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Baker said the U.S. military and Iraqi police were following up a number of leads, which he did not detail.
The attack on Nabil was the latest in a string of bombings in Baghdad.
Earlier Wednesday evening, a bomb hidden in shrubs outside another Baghdad restaurant exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed, wounding three American soldiers and three Iraqi civilians, the military said. Iraqi bystanders said one Iraqi was killed.
Also Wednesday, a roadside bomb apparently aimed at a U.S. military convoy killed an 8-year-old Iraqi boy. Three American soldiers suffered minor injuries. A similar attack on a main thoroughfare on Tuesday killed an Iraqi civilian.
Another roadside bomb killed two Iraqi children and an American soldier on Sunday in central Baghdad.
The Associated Press and ******* contributed to this report.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military helicopter crashed west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier and wounding another, the U.S. military said. The cause was not known.
Meantime, ethnic tensions flared again in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, leading to at least one death.
A policeman who witnessed the helicopter crash, which occurred about 32 miles west of Baghdad near the volatile town of Fallujah, told ******* the aircraft was shot down, although the U.S. military could not immediately confirm that.
“We were in a joint patrol with U.S. troops to remove land mines and I saw a helicopter hovering in the sky which was hit by a missile,” policeman Mohammad Abdul Aziz said. “It was split into two and went down in flames.”
A U.S. military spokeswoman said the helicopter, an OH-58 observation chopper, came down around 12:50 p.m. (4:50 a.m. ET) near Fallujah but had no further details. She said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
Wreckage strewn across field
******* television pictures showed pieces of the aircraft scattered across a plowed field. U.S. forces cordoned off the area as helicopters flew overhead keeping watch.
Insurgents have shot down several U.S. helicopters in recent months, including three Black Hawks and a Chinook transporter in November, killing a total of 39 U.S. soldiers.
Falluja, in the heart of the Sunni triangle, has been the site of near-constant attacks on U.S. forces since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein last April. U.S. officials blame the attacks on insurgents loyal to the former regime.
In Kirkuk, meanwhile, at least one man was killed and another was wounded overnight as police and protesters clashed in the city, where Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen are all vying for more political power.
Earlier this week, at least five people were killed when gunfire erupted as Turkmens and Arabs faced off with the mainly Kurdish police during a protest against a plan to include Kirkuk in a Kurdish administrative unit.
Kirkuk police commander Shirko Shakir said a protest late on Thursday led to an exchange of gunfire with police, who detained a wounded Arab gunman. Another man, whose ethnicity Shakir declined to specify, was found killed in the area where the latest protest and clashes occurred, he said.
Saddam loyalists blamed for violence
“From the amount of shooting we assume that there are more wounded and killed whose bodies they took away, and we are watching hospitals and private doctors for them,” he told *******, blaming the violence on provocateurs loyal to Saddam.
“One had ’Saddam’ tattooed on his arms and hands, and that area has pockets of mercenaries and Fedayeen,” he said, referring to the ousted strongman’s militia.
Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk are bitterly opposed to a plan by Kurds on Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council to grant significant autonomy to a Kurdish area based in three provinces they wrested from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War, and which would include Kirkuk.
U.S. and Iraqi officials also were continuing to investigate the New Year’s Eve car bombing of an upscale Baghdad restaurant, which killed eight people.
U.S. military officials said the bombing was a sign that opponents of the U.S.-led occupation forces may be shifting to civilian targets.
The so-called “hard targets” in Baghdad — like coalition complexes and Iraqi police stations — are increasingly well guarded, pushing insurgents toward soft targets, like Nabil Restaurant, said a U.S. military officer with the 1st Armored Division. He spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
“When terrorists can target coalition forces or Iraqi police,” they will, said Lt. Gen. Ahmed Kadhem, deputy Iraqi interior minister and Baghdad chief of police. “If they can’t, they go to an easier target, aiming at civilians.”
He said security was being increased around hospitals and government buildings and called on schools to put up checkpoints and keep cars off their campuses.
Assailants have previously bombed civilian targets, including the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Both organizations pulled most of their foreign staff out of Iraq after those deadly attacks.
Restaurant was easy target
In a city where sandbagged checkpoints, cement barriers and armed guards protect many potential targets, the Nabil Restaurant was easy prey.
Situated on a busy street in the upscale Karrada neighborhood, it was protected by a lone armed guard and had no cement barriers or sandbags to shield wealthy patrons from the blast of the car bomb that detonated Wednesday night as Iraqis and Westerners celebrated.
Col. Ralph Baker, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, said the blast was caused by a car ****y-trapped with about 500 pounds of explosives. He said reports that it was a suicide bomb attack were false, and that they had questioned witnesses who said they saw a man running from a vehicle before the explosion.
No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Baker said the U.S. military and Iraqi police were following up a number of leads, which he did not detail.
The attack on Nabil was the latest in a string of bombings in Baghdad.
Earlier Wednesday evening, a bomb hidden in shrubs outside another Baghdad restaurant exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed, wounding three American soldiers and three Iraqi civilians, the military said. Iraqi bystanders said one Iraqi was killed.
Also Wednesday, a roadside bomb apparently aimed at a U.S. military convoy killed an 8-year-old Iraqi boy. Three American soldiers suffered minor injuries. A similar attack on a main thoroughfare on Tuesday killed an Iraqi civilian.
Another roadside bomb killed two Iraqi children and an American soldier on Sunday in central Baghdad.
The Associated Press and ******* contributed to this report.