HINDIYA, Iraq (AFP) - Iraq claimed it shot down two US Apache helicopters and boasted it could again parade captured and humiliated American troops on state television. An Iraqi officer speaking to reporters at the crash site said that the two Apaches had been shot down overnight while they were surveying the area around the southern city of Kerbala at low altitute.
Information Minister Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf said that Iraq might show their crews on television later in a further blow to coalition forces, which launched the invasion to topple President Saddam Hussein on Thursday.
"A small number of peasants shot down two Apaches. We have shown the images of one of them on Iraqi television and we may show images of the pilots of the two aircraft or we may not show them," Sahhaf taunted.