|
Soldier killed when helicopter shot down { January 2 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49523-2004Jan2.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49523-2004Jan2.html
Soldier Killed When Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq
Ethnic Disputes Continue to Flare in Kirkuk
By Alan Sipress and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 2, 2004; 4:27 PM
BAGHDAD, Jan. 2--One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded Friday when their armed reconnaissance helicopter was shot down while troops on the ground were conducting operations near the volatile town of Fallujah, military officials said.
Hours later, U.S. forces bombarded suspected insurgent positions around the Iraqi capital in a nighttime attack involving mortars, artillery and A-10 and C-130 aircraft.
The attack, the results of which were not immediately known, came a day after U.S. troops and Iraqi police and civil defense personnel raided a Sunni Muslim mosque in Baghdad that military officials said had been used to harbor terrorists and hide weapons.
The Thursday raid at the Um Tabul mosque prompted an angry demonstration by more than 1,000 worshipers after Friday prayers. Mosque leaders charged that U.S. troops had defiled the mosque -- an accusation denied by the military -- and argued that weapons seized there were only for self-defense.
Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters that soldiers guarding the helicopter crash site had come under fire from insurgents posing as journalists and that four of the attackers were arrested.
A driver for the Reuters news agency said three Iraqis working for Reuters had been fired upon by U.S. troops as they filmed a checkpoint near the crash site. Reuters reported that it was told later that the three had been detained.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, at least one Kurd and two Arabs were reported killed in another day of ethnic disturbances over the future of the oil-producing center, which is coveted by Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen groups.
According to a spokesman for the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed at about 12:50 p.m. near Fallujah. The Army's Central Command later confirmed that the aircraft was shot down by rebels.
After speaking with commanders of the 82nd Airborne Division, which operates in the Fallujah area, Kimmitt said, "They are fairly convinced that it was enemy fire."
Reuters quoted an Iraqi policeman who witnessed the crash as saying the helicopter had been hit by a missile.
"We were in a joint patrol with U.S. troops to remove land mines and I saw a helicopter hovering in the sky which was hit by a missile," Mohammad Abdul Aziz told the agency. "It was split into two and went down in flames."
U.S. forces afterward cordoned off a plowed field that was littered with pieces of the aircraft, a two-person observation helicopter that is often used to help guide troops on the ground and that is typically armed with air-to-ground missiles. Reporters were kept away from the scene of the crash, which occurred about 32 miles west of Baghdad.
Soldiers also conducted searches in Fallujah after the crash, blocking off streets and searching shops and homes as helicopters flew overhead, the Associated Press reported.
Kimmitt said paratroopers securing the crash site came under fire from "five enemy personnel" who drove up to the scene in two dark Mercedes cars. He said the five were wearing "black press jackets with 'press' written in English" and that they fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades at the U.S. soldiers. No soldiers were reported injured in the incident.
Kimmitt said one of the Mercedes was tracked to a nearby house and that "four enemy personnel" were captured.
Fallujah, a stronghold of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in the so-called "Sunni triangle" of Hussein loyalists, has been a hotbed of insurgent activity against U.S. forces since the occupation began in April. U.S. helicopters have come under fire in the area on a number of occasions.
Kimmitt strongly denied that soldiers had defiled the Um Tabul mosque, saying that great care was taken to respect its sanctity. He said 32 persons were detained there, including several believed to be non-Iraqis. He said troops found high explosives, hand grenades, assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and thousands of rounds of ammunition inside the mosque, which he said had been used for "criminal and terrorist activities."
The cleric in charge of the mosque, Abdulsatar Janabi, acknowledged that weapons had been seized, but asserted that the quantity was much less than Kimmitt said. "In every mosque in Iraq we keep light guns for self-protection," he told Reuters.
In Kirkuk, the latest casualties occurred during clashes overnight between Iraqi police and protesters. Residents told reporters that shootouts erupted when police tried to stop armed Arabs from attacking Kurds.
The Kirkuk police commander, Shirko Shakir, said police detained a wounded Arab gunman after a protest led to an exchange of gunfire with police, Reuters reported. Police said one Kurd was killed and another wounded when they came under fire from Arab gunmen as they were walking in an Arab neighborhood.
Jalal Jawher, the local head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, told reporters later that two Arabs had also been killed and several wounded when police fired on Arab attackers.
Shakir blamed the violence on provocateurs loyal to Hussein.
The city has been tense since an incident last week in which Arab and Turkmen protesters were fired upon by Kurdish gunmen as the protesters approached the PUK headquarters in Kirkuk. As many as five people were reported killed and more than two dozen wounded in the shooting.
The protesters were demonstrating against a Kurdish plan to have Kirkuk join an autonomous Kurdish region in Northern Iraq where Kurds established self-rule at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The Arabs and Turkmen in the city want Kirkuk to remain under the control of an Iraqi central government in Baghdad.
Kirkuk's population of more than 1 million is divided roughly into thirds among the three ethnic groups.
In other developments in Iraq:
A U.S. soldier was killed and six others were injured when a truck flipped onto its side while heading toward Baghdad International Airport. The military said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
Soldiers arrested two men described as key figures in the insurgency, U.S. officials said Friday. A man known as Abu Mohammed was captured Thursday after being identified as involved in moving foreign fighters and cash through a rebellious area west of Baghdad. In a separate raid in Samarra, soldiers arrested a tribal leader, Sheik Kahtan Yehia, who was accused of sheltering former Iraqi vice president Izzat Ibrahim, the highest-ranking figure on a U.S. most-wanted list who is still at large.
The dean of political science of Mosul University, a minor official in the former Baath Party who had been appointed by Hussein, was kidnapped and apparently assassinated. The body of Adel Jabar Abid Mustafa was found Thursday with two gunshots to his head.
An oil tanker truck, part of a U.S. military convoy, burst into flames as the convoy was heading toward a based near the troubled town of Ramadi. Witnesses said it was hit by a rebel rocket or roadside bomb, the AP reported.
About 60 miles south of Mosul, one U.S. soldier was slightly injured when a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter made an emergency landing near the town of Qarayah. A military spokesman said the helicopter developed a problem with its tail rotor.
Branigin reported from Washington.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
|
|
