Replies

Matthew it is a sad morning. I'll leave a bit of the news here for folks who haven't seen the front page yet.

I really wish we would hit the enemy harder to get rid of these people and their weapons. If we are going to get rid of the bastards then lets do it with all we have instead of "policing" the country. This is War and we should start treating it that way.

I guess I'm not in a very friendly mood this morning. Thank you for stopping in Matt with an offer for prayers.

***

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. Chinook helicopter carrying troops en route home for leave was struck by a missile Sunday and crashed west of Baghdad, killing 13 soldiers and wounding more than 20, the U.S. command and witnesses reported.

It was the deadliest day for American troops in the six-month-old occupation of Iraq, and came amid threats attributed to Saddam Hussein's party of a wave of violence against the U.S. occupation.

There was still no sign of the rumored ``Day of Resistance'' allegedly planned for Baghdad on Saturday. But at least one other American soldier was confirmed killed Sunday in ground attacks here and elsewhere in central Iraq.

Witnesses said they saw two missiles fired at the heavy transport copter, the biggest U.S. target yet shot from the skies by Iraq's insurgents. It had been ferrying soldiers to Baghdad International Airport for flights out of the country for rest and relaxation, or R&R.

The aircraft was hit at about 9 a.m. and crashed amid cornfields near the village of Hasi, about 40 miles southwest of Baghdad and just south of Fallujah, a center of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. occupation.

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 Saddam's regime in April.

``The Chinook was shot down by an unknown weapon,'' a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said on condition of anonymity. U.S. command in Baghdad said there were 13 killed and more than 20 wounded, and that a search was under way for possible other survivors.