Security Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq
'Pakistan Times' Monitoring Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): At least five civilians died in the Baghdad crash of a helicopter owned by the private security company Blackwater USA, according to a U.S. military official.

The helicopter was shot down Tuesday, a senior Iraqi defense official said. The crash came three days after a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashed northeast of Baghdad, killing all 12 soldiers aboard.

The deaths of three more U.S. troops also were announced, including a Marine who killed Sunday south of Baghdad, raising the weekend death toll to 28 as American casualties mount ahead of a U.S.-Iraqi security push to try to secure the capital.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed Monday, the military said — one in fighting in Anbar province west of the capital and another in a roadside bombing.

The Iraqi official, who would not allow use of his name because the information had not been made public, said a gunman with a PKC machine gun downed the small helicopter Tuesday afternoon over the heavily Sunni Fadhil neighborhood in north-central Baghdad, where witnesses reported clashes between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces.

There were casualties, the official said, but would give no details.

A U.S. military official in the Middle East confirmed the helicopter crashed in a heavily populated Baghdad neighborhood but had no information on why or how many were on board. That official also refused to be identified because he was not authorized to release the information.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said only that it had no evidence a U.S. forces' aircraft had gone down but it was investigating what appeared to be the crash of a civilian one.

The statement gave no other details, but U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said American officials were investigating the reports.

"We are in the process of determining the facts and checking on the welfare and status of those involved," he told The Associated Press.

Most aircraft used in Iraq belong to the coalition forces, but at least one U.S. security company was known to fly small helicopters above convoys carrying dignitaries and foreigners in Baghdad.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way, said there was no indication any U.S. Embassy staff or diplomats were on the aircraft.

Witnesses reported clashes between gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi forces that lasted for several hours on Tuesday as helicopters flew low over the area where the helicopter was reportedly shot down. Police also said a car bomb struck a market in the district, killing at least three people and wounding 10.

Insurgents are known to have surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades but have not been able to use them effectively because of U.S. military avoidance tactics.

A senior U.S. military official said that there was evidence that the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, killing all 12 on board, may have been shot down.

Searchers at the scene found a tube that could be part of a shoulder-fired weapon that may have been used to shoot down the aircraft, said the official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was still continuing.

At least 45 other people were killed or found dead in the Baghdad area and in the northern city of Mosul, including 27 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up on the streets of the capital.

U.S.-led forces also killed 16 suspected insurgents and detained 10 others Tuesday in the area surrounding Baghdad and Haditha, 140 miles northwest of the capital.

Killings

In Tuesday's other violence, a parked car bomb exploded at 9 a.m. near the Finance Ministry, which is run by Bayan Jabr, a Shiite and former interior minister. One civilian was killed and four people were wounded, including a ministry guard, police said.

A bomb planted under a car exploded about 45 minutes later in the predominantly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in downtown Baghdad, killing four people, including a woman and a 7-year-old boy, and wounding seven other people, police said.

The blast collapsed part of the wall of a brick building, leaving a ground floor apartment exposed and a mass of rubble and mangled cars in the alley.

"Why are the insurgents detonating bombs near our houses every day? Everyday we have a blast, what have we done wrong? May Allah curse everybody who hurts the people," an elderly woman shrouded in black said as she stood amid the wreckage.

Insurgents also continued to target police in northern Iraq, with at least four officers killed during clashes throughout the northwest city of Mosul. Five insurgents also were killed and two detained in the fighting, police said.●