Iraqi Army Helicopter Crash Kills 8, Including an American

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/world/middleeast/05iraq.html?ref=world


A sandstorm caused an Iraqi helicopter to crash in northern Iraq, killing all eight men on board and also one American servicemen. Americans were the first rescuers and founders of the wreckage. The helicopter was a Russuan-made Mi-17 and it had recently been renovated. The helicopter departed from Sinai Air Base, five miles from Baiji in Salahuddin Province. When the helicopter was 60 miles north of Baiji air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the pilot. An official in the Third Division of the Iraqi Army said two more helicopters had to make emergency landings to avoid the sandstorms. Those helicopters were each carrying eight Iraqi servicemen, the pilots turned off their radios so they could avoid insurgents who might have monitored them. They cleaned their air filters and flew back to the base, none of these servicemen were injurjed.

In Salahuddin, two civilian guardsmen were killed east of Tikrit. Two of the guardsmen, members of the tribal groups that have renounced Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and Iraqi insurgent group, have allied with the American military and were manning a checkpoint when the gunmen shot them.

American forces killed three people believed to be insurgents in an operation east of Baghdad. American troops fired at the suspects' vehicle while they were trying to escape. The vehicle was destroyed and an Iraqi civilian received minor injuries during the operation.

Iraqi security forces in Latifiya, north of Babil, found an unidentified body in a canal. The local forensic hospital tried indentifying the decomposing body. It was also said that two more bodies were discovered in Diyala Province, just north of the capital. One of the bodies had been shot to death and was found north of Baquba. The other body, which was decapitated, was found in Khalis, also north of Baquba.