National News

Iraqi insurgents bring down U.S. helicopter, killing at least 15 soldiers

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. Chinook helicopter believed to be carrying dozens of soldiers to leaves abroad was struck by a missile and crashed west of Baghdad on Nov. 2, killing 15 soldiers and wounding 21 others, the U.S. command reported.

It was the deadliest day for American troops in the six-month-old occupation of Iraq.

The heavy transport helicopter was the biggest U.S. target yet shot from the skies by Iraq's insurgents, in a resistance campaign that has escalated in recent days. Witnesses and U.S. officials said four to five other U.S. soldiers were reported killed Nov. 2 in ground attacks here and elsewhere in central Iraq.

Witnesses near Fallujah, which is a center of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. occupation, said they saw two missiles fired at the helicopter, which came down amid cornfields nearby.

Insurgents have fired on U.S. aircraft before, downing two helicopters, and American military officials have repeatedly warned that hundreds of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles remain unaccounted for in Iraq since the collapse of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime in April.

The helicopter was part of a formation of two Chinooks carrying more than 50 passengers to the U.S. base at Baghdad International Airport (BIA).

"Our initial report is that they were being transported to BIA for R＆R flights," that is, rest-and-recreation leaves abroad, a U.S. command spokeswoman in Baghdad said.

Someone fired two missiles from the area of a date palm grove about 450 meters from where one of the helicopters came crashing down, said an Iraqi witness.

Other witnesses said the second helicopter hovered over the downed craft for some minutes and then set down, apparently to try to help extinguish a fire, but the downed helicopter was destroyed.

Shukan ST: Nov. 14, 2003

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