At least 13 soldiers were killed when a U.S. helicopter was shot down in Iraq on Sunday this a.m.
At Least 14 Killed in Separate Attacks Against U.S. Troops
By REUTERS
nytimes.com
BAGHDAD, Nov.2 — At least 13 soldiers were killed when a U.S. Chinook helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad on Sunday, the U.S. military said.
"Currently 13 soldiers are KIA (killed in action) and some 20 wounded," a spokesman told Reuters. The attack caused the biggest single death toll among occupying troops since Saddam Hussein was toppled in April.
Separately, a U.S. soldier died after being wounded in an overnight roadside bomb blast in Baghdad.
A U.S. spokesman said two Chinooks had been heading for Baghdad airport with troops on a rest and recreation break. He said the downed helicopter, carrying 30 people including five crew, had been "shot down by an unknown weapon."
A witness in Falluja, Dawoud Suleiman, said: "There were two American helicopters. They fired a missile at one and missed, and then they hit the other, which crashed and caught fire."
Some Iraqis were jubilant. "The Americans are pigs. We will hold a celebration because this helicopter went down -- a big celebration," said wheat farmer Saadoun Jaralla near the crash site. "The Americans are enemies of mankind."
U.S. troops told journalists to leave the area and confiscated their film as another military medical helicopter with a red cross sign on its side landed, sending up clouds of dust from the dry scrubland.
It was the third time guerrillas had brought down a U.S. military helicopter since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq on May 1.
Bush himself had vowed on Saturday to stand firm and said leaving Iraq prematurely would strengthen the "terrorists" who he blamed for recent deadly suicide attacks.
DANCING ON THE WRECKAGE
In Falluja, residents said a roadside bomb had hit a convoy of U.S. soldiers in civilian vehicles. At least one vehicle was ablaze at the scene, where crowds gathered to celebrate and shout anti-U.S. slogans. Television pictures showed a gleeful youth wearing a U.S. Army helmet. Others danced on wreckage.
Before the helicopter attack, 123 U.S. soldiers had died in hostilities in Iraq in the past six months, including one killed by an overnight roadside bomb blast in Baghdad and two killed by a bomb in the northern city of Mosul the day before.
In Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, residents said a roadside bomb had exploded as a U.S. convoy passed, hitting a bus carrying university students and wounding two women.
Several of Iraq's neighbours were holding security talks in Damascus over the weekend, mindful of recent American assertions that Syria and Iran are not doing enough to prevent foreign militants crossing into Iraq.
But Iraq's interim foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, said he would not accept a belated invitation to attend.
Officials at his ministry said Syria had been reluctant to invite him because of misgivings about being seen to recognise Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government.
"It's impossible for us to make it, and that was their intention," Zebari told Reuters on Sunday. "We don't even know what the agenda is."
U.S. troops and Iraqi police had tightened security in Baghdad and other cities over the weekend in response to rumours that guerrillas planned another series of bombings.
Many fearful parents kept their children out of schools in the capital for the second day in a row, and some of the pupils who did show up for class seemed terrified.
Outside the Baghdad Middle School for Girls, one of three armed guards said some pupils had wept when dropped off by their parents. The deputy headmistress, who declined to give her name, said only about a fifth of her 750 pupils had turned up.
"They're staying away because they're afraid of explosions. We've tried to assure parents that it's safe," she said. |
