Posted on 11/01/2003 11:32:10 PM PST by RWR8189
20 injured, no further info
Go get them boys
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military command said Sunday that 13 soldiers were killed and more than 20 wounded when their U.S. Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah.
"Currently there are 13 killed in action and more than 20 wounded," the U.S. military said in a statement.
The the wounded have all been transferred to medical facilities and authorities are searching for more survivors, it said.
The Chinook helicopter was believed to be carrying dozens of soldiers to their leaves abroad was struck by a missile and crashed in corn fields west of Baghdad, witnesses and U.S. officials said. A coalition official had earlier said that at least two soldiers were killed and 20 injured.
Meanwhile, other American soldiers were reported killed in ground attacks here and elsewhere in central Iraq, as insurgents pressed a campaign that has stepped up in recent days — a "tough week," in the words of the U.S. occupation chief.
In Abu Ghraib, on Baghdad's western edge, U.S. troops clashed with townspeople Sunday for the second time in three days, and witnesses reported casualties among both the Americans and Iraqis. There was no immediate official confirmation.
Witnesses south of Fallujah, 40 miles west of the capital, said they saw two missiles fired at the helicopter, which came down near the village of Hasi, six miles to the south. Fallujah is a center of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. occupation.
"The Chinook was shot down by an unknown weapon," a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said on condition of anonymity.
American military officials have repeatedly warned that hundreds of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles remain unaccounted for in Iraq since the collapse of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime in April. Insurgents have fired on U.S. aircraft before, but this was the first known shootdown involving the Baghdad airport.
Across Iraq, it was the third helicopter known to have been brought down since President Bush (news - web sites) declared an end to major combat on May 1.
The helicopter was part of a formation of two Chinooks carrying more than 50 passengers to the U.S. base at the former Saddam International Airport, renamed Baghdad International.
"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. She said at least some were coming from Camp Ridgeway, believed to be an 82nd Airborne Division base in western Iraq.
Witnesses said the second copter hovered over the down craft for some minutes and then set down, apparently to try to help extinguish a fire, but the downed copter was destroyed.
At least a half-dozen Black Hawk helicopters later hovered over the area, and dozens of soldiers swarmed over the site. Injured were still being evacuated at least two hours later.
Local villagers displayed blackened pieces of wreckage to arriving reporters, and in nearby Fallujah townspeople celebrated on the streets. "This was a new lesson from the resistance, a lesson to the greedy aggressors," said one Iraqi, who wouldn't give his name. "They'll never be safe until they get out of our country," he said of the Americans.
Townspeople also reported a fresh attack on U.S. soldiers inside Fallujah, saying an explosion struck one vehicle in a convoy at about 9 a.m. Sunday. They claimed four soldiers died, but U.S. military sources said they couldn't confirm the report.
In a separate incident, military sources said a soldier from the 1st Armored Division was killed just after midnight in an explosion in Baghdad.
In Abu Ghraib, local Iraqis said U.S. troops arrived Sunday morning and ordered people to disperse from the marketplace and remove what the Iraqis said were religious stickers from walls. Someone then tossed a grenade at the Americans, witnesses said, and the soldiers opened fire.
The U.S. command said it had no immediate information, but Iraqi witnesses said they believed three or four Americans were killed and six to seven Iraqis were wounded.
The presence of the portable anti-aircraft missiles has represented a significant threat for military aircraft and raised concerns over the security of the few commercial flights in and out of Baghdad International Airport. The U.S.-led coalition has offered rewards of $500 apiece to Iraqis who turn them in.
A U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter crash-landed Oct. 25 in Tikrit after being hit by an unknown weapon, injuring one crewmember. On June 12, a U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter was shot down by hostile fire in the western desert, and two crewmembers were rescued unhurt.
The Pentagon had announced Friday it was expanding the home leave program for troops in Iraq, to fly more soldiers out of the region each day and take them to more U.S. airports. As of Sunday, it said, the number of soldiers departing daily via a transit facility in neighboring Kuwait would be increased to 480, from 280.
The workhorse, 10-ton Chinook, which has a crew of four, is the military's most versatile heavy-lift helicopter, used primarily for troop movements, transporting artillery and similar functions.
There has been no better time than now to wipe Fallujah off the face of the earth. This location is a terrorist nest and we know it. Blackhawks, chinooks are being shoot out of the sky from Fallujah. Trains are being blown up from Fallujah. Convoys are being blown up from Fallujah.
Its time to obliterate Fallujah and its inhabitants.
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