Helicopter Shot Down In Baghdad Thu; 9 Dead:Sources-TV

21 Apr 2005

[dakine]

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--A helicopter was shot down in Baghdad Thursday, military sources told CNN.

Nine aboard the helicopter were presumed dead, CNN said.

[dakine]

Probably already posted...but seeing it on DJ-News makes it news...

[leadpenny]

US?

[mass55th]

According to Fox News, it was a civilian helicopter used by some business in Iraq.

[ken5050]

Bomb hidden on board, perhaps?

[seacapn]

Insurgents are hitting back this month. It makes sense, they need some kind of Tet offensive while the government is still un-formed and weak. I just hope the new Iraqi governmet gets itself up and running quickly and proves its critics wrong.

[leadpenny]

I had no idea there were business choppers in Iraq. Thanks.

[michigander]

Helicopter Downed in Iraq, Nine Dead - U.S. Sources

Thu Apr 21, 2005 07:19 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Mi-8 commercial helicopter was shot down in Iraq on Thursday and all nine people aboard are believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said.

The Russian-built aircraft was flying just north of Baghdad when it was hit, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade, one source said. Reuters Television received footage of a helicopter that had been shot down in the area and which was still on fire.

The military sources said three crew and six passengers, all civilians, were on board. Their nationalities were not known, although it was believed that the crew may have been Bulgarian.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry in Sofia said it had no information on any incident.

"It was a contract aircraft that was not being used by the military, although the Mi-8 is also a military helicopter," the source in Iraq said.

"We are trying to investigate right now what happened, but we believe it was shot by small arms fire, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade," he said.

Russia's twin-engined Mi-8 has been the transport workhorse of military and civilian fleets for more than 30 years. It has a crew of three and can carry up to 24 passengers.

Footage received by Reuters showed mangled and burning wreckage, including rotor blades, in a desert area north of the capital, near the town of Tarmiya.

At least two charred bodies could be seen near the site. The bulk of the aircraft was burned almost beyond recognition, although what appeared to be two engines were also visible.

Insurgents frequently fire on U.S. aircraft in Iraq and have brought down several helicopters in the past. A U.S. Chinook transporter was shot down west of Baghdad in November 2003, killing at least 16 U.S. troops.

Ten British troops died on Jan. 30 when a C-130 Hercules transport plane came down north of Baghdad. The cause remains unclear but officials have said it may have been shot down.

[Tempestuous]

"Insurgents are hitting back this month."

Call them by what they really are: Islamic Terrorists.

[tomkat]

For the peace of mind of those w/loved ones in theatre,
perhaps y'all could make a parenthetical note in the title to the effect that this was NOT a U.S. military chopper ?

[mass55th]

Reported as being taken down by an RPG

[ken5050]

More likely scenario...those things are pretty big..slow, low, and hard to miss..

[jveritas]

You mean the presumed TET offensive that the terrorists and the media were telling us it will happen over 600 million times by now, and it never happened.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

This was the exact point made by a spokesman for the incoming government, who was interviewed on PRI yesterday.

He claimed that the recent assaults by Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, Ba'athist remnants, and street gangs are occurring in a political vacuum.

The most recent attempt on Iyad Allawi's life is a perfect illustration of this.

[moose2004]

I saw a reporter from the NY Times on CNN last weekend and he stated very cleary that the situation in Iraq is rapidly improving. He said more cars are on the road, people are shopping and buying goods, they're working and starting new businesses, that recruits are lining up to join the military and police, and that the Iraqi military now credibly has 65,000 + battle hardened soldiers fighting alongside coalition forces. He said that coalition forces, primarily US and UK, could begin to draw down their numbers sometime next year, although he stated that it appears that some US/coalition forces will be in Iraq for "years to come." I must say that I was very encouraged by what I heard, especially coming from a reporter from The Times.

[weegee]

The media's beloved "comeback kids". The "insurgents" who will repel Bush's "fascist" troops.

This is no longer a war, it is a series of terrorist attacks against the newly formed Iraqi government, Iraqi citizens, the US troops and contractors, and the allied nations.

If it were a war, there would be some "leadership" which could be negotiated with. Not anonymous men in black masks. Why doesn't this "leadership" run a candidate? They are thugs trying to prevent the inevitable. Same with those in America who torch SUV dealerships.

Would the left EVER consider the KKK to be "an insurgent movement" that should not be excluded from the government in the South after reconstruction?

[DCPatriot]

bump

[leadpenny]

James Hattori, MSNBC, reporting three Bulgarian and six employees of Blackwater were killed in the crash.

[leadpenny]

Bulgarians were the helicopter crew members.

[leadpenny]

http://www.blackwaterusa.com/

[timtoews5292004]

If I'm not mistaken, those two guys who were immolated then hung on a bridge in Baghdad a long while back were also Blackwater people.

[leadpenny]

I believe so.

[iso]

They are BlackWarer ?

[contemplator]

Would the left EVER consider the KKK to be "an insurgent movement" that should not be excluded from the government in the South after reconstruction?

Nice analogy. I'm sure others will pick apart how it's different and not applicable, but the spirit of it is very thought provoking. In the case of the South, The KKK controlled most of the local governemnts in the South in secret, as I'm sure people with the same ideologies just as the insurgents will control many local goverments in Iraq for years to come.

[StrangerInParadise]

You mean the TET offensive of 1968, in which US forces inflicted unsustainable casualties on the enemy, while having it reported back home as a defeat for the US? /sarc

SIP

[leadpenny]

Yes, according to James Hattori (NBC) in Baghdad about an hour ago.

[weegee]

Posting on FR allows some of these ideas to rise. Some research would be needed to shore up this view.

But it is a mistake for the left to believe (and feed the terrorists' beliefs) that the "insurgents" could possibly "win". Now they are saying that what we face in Iraqi government is the threatening possibility that a fanatical religious government could take hold "worse than Iran". Then they continue with things along the lines of "if anything, we should have gone to war against Iran/Saudi Arabia, not Iraq." Funny, I thought that they were against the war without "provocation", or without "international support", or against a "sovereign nation". They sure do want to go to war in a lot of other lands.

[jveritas]

Great post.

PS: I like your tagline :)

[jveritas]

Yep the TET offensive where the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong lost over 100,000 men. It was a great victory for them per the NYT and CBS.

According to admissions of the North Vietnamese communist leadership, made public in the last ten years, the NV's were totally demoralized after the TET offensive and they knew that it will be impossible to win militarily against the US. So they hoped for the American left(like John Kerry, Jane Fonda, etc..) to mobilize our useful idiots to march in the streets against the war and hence budge the war from inside. Sadly, they got their wish.

[OXENinFLA]

Thu Apr 21,10:07 AM ET
A video grab shows the wreckage of a Russian-built commercial helicopter in Baghdad, April 21, 2005. The helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad on Thursday and all nine people aboard were believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said. The attack, believed to be the first downing of a civilian aircraft in Iraq, comes amid a surge in guerrilla violence and puts further pressure on leaders struggling to form a government nearly three months after elections. Photo by Reuters (Handout)
Thu Apr 21, 8:38 AM ET
A video grab shows the wreckage of a Russian-built commercial helicopter in Baghdad, April 21, 2005. A Russian-built commercial helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad on Thursday and all nine people aboard were believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said. REUTERS/Reuters TV
Thu Apr 21, 8:50 AM ET
A video grab shows the wreckage of a Russian-built commercial helicopter in Baghdad, April 21, 2005. The helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad on Thursday and all nine people aboard were believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said. (Reuters)

[iso]

But I hear Three of the victims were Bulgarians .

[corlorde]

The media's beloved "comeback kids". The "insurgents" who will repel Bush's "fascist" troops.

Yup, they are probably high fiving over at the NY Times.

"We need more Patton, and less patent leather"

--Savage

[leadpenny]

Yes, see 17 and 18.

[iso]

Sad ,

Rest In Peace

[A.A. Cunningham]

[leadpenny]

Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq; Nine Dead

25 minutes ago Top Stories - AP


By JAMIE TARABAY, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A commercial helicopter contracted by the U.S. Defense Department was shot down by missile fire north of the Iraqi capital Thursday, and all nine people on board were killed, U.S. and Bulgarian officials said.

The Mi-8 helicopter went down about 12 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. Embassy said. Video on television showed burning wreckage scattered across a wide area.


In Sofia, Bulgaria, the Defense Ministry said three of the victims were Bulgarians. The crew was Bulgarian, although no members of Bulgaria's 460-member military contingent in Iraq were on board, it said.


The U.S. military said the helicopter was contracted by the Defense Department. At the Pentagon, a senior defense official said there were six civilian contract workers aboard the aircraft. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he did not know the nationalities of those six victims or their employers.


After a week of stepped-up violence, the country's most feared terror group, Al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility Thursday for a suicide car bombing that targeted interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's convoy but did not harm the Iraqi leader.


The attack on Allawi's convoy occurred Wednesday, a day of multiple bombings and shootings in Baghdad and elsewhere that killed at least 13 people and wounded 21.


The victims included an Australian security contract worker and two other foreign nationals killed by assailants firing at their vehicle in Baghdad, Australian officials said in Sydney on Thursday.


Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for several of the attacks, including the one on Allawi, in statements that surfaced on Web sites known for their militant content.


"Allawi escaped, but if one arrow missed its target, there are many others in the quiver," one of the statements said.


The authenticity of the claims could not be verified.


In a separate attack, a roadside bomb exploded on the highway leading to Baghdad's airport Thursday, heavily damaging three sport utility vehicles carrying civilians. Police Capt. Hamid Ali said two foreigners were killed and three wounded in the burning vehicles. But U.S. Embassy and military officials could not confirm the casualties.


Lately, much of Iraq's violence has occurred in the capital, as political leaders struggle to agree on a new Cabinet from the country's mix of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, nearly three months after Iraqis elected a 275-seat National Assembly.


Meanwhile, the Iraqi Defense Ministry identified 19 bullet-riddled bodies found Wednesday in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, as fishermen. Residents initially said they believed the victims were soldiers.


Investigations indicated the men came from the southern Diwaniya and Najaf provinces to fish in Tharthar lake when they were captured by insurgents, taken to the soccer stadium at nearby Haditha and shot, said chief ministry spokesman Saleh Sarhan. He did not say how the victims had been identified or why they might have been captured.


Residents heard gunshots Wednesday and rushed to the stadium, where they said they found the bodies.


Residents first said they believed the victims — all men in civilian clothes — were soldiers abducted by insurgents as they headed home for a holiday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. But residents and an Iraqi reporter saw no military identification on the bodies.





In October, insurgents ambushed and killed about 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers as they headed home from a U.S. military training camp northeast of Baghdad.

The photos of the bodies pulled from the Tigris were handed out at the police station in Suwayra.

"My cousin was kidnapped by terrorists, and he has been missing for two weeks," Jawad Hashim Shael said as he scanned the photos. "We have searched all nearby areas, but we still have no information about his whereabouts."

On Wednesday, interim President Jalal Talabani announced that more than 50 bodies were recovered, saying that was proof of claims that dozens were abducted from an area south of the capital last week despite a fruitless search by Iraqi forces.

Talabani did not say when or where the bodies were pulled from the river, but he said all had been identified as hostages.

"Terrorists committed crimes there. It is not true to say there were no hostages. There were. They were killed, and they threw the bodies into the Tigris," Talabani said. "We have the full names of those who were killed and those criminals who committed these crimes."

Shiite leaders and government officials claimed last week that Sunni militants abducted as many as 100 Shiites from the Madain area, 14 miles southeast of Baghdad, and said they would be killed unless all Shiites left town.

But when Iraqi forces moved into the town of 1,000 families, they found no captives, and residents said they had seen no evidence anyone had been seized.

Madain and Suwayra are both located in the "Triangle of Death," a region south of Baghdad where there have been numerous retaliatory kidnappings. Police and health officials said victims were sometimes killed and dumped in the river.

As summer approaches and temperatures start to rise, bodies have been floating to the surface, said Dr. Falah al-Permani of the Swera district health department. He said as many as 50 bodies have been recovered in the past three weeks. But it was unclear whether they were the bodies referred to by Talabani.

___

AP military writer Robert Burns in Washington and reporter Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed to this report.

[Destro]

What makes sense is that whole sections of Sunni Iraq are outside of Coalition control where they are free to organize and plot and strike out. We are being decieved because the Bush admin does not want to be drawn into a true pacification operation. They want to declare victory and get out.

[leadpenny]

MSNBC's on-air news babe just said they are hearing reports that the death toll may be 11.

[bozot]

The BBC said that 6 US contractors were among the dead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4468959.stm

[SuziQ]

You mean the presumed TET offensive that the terrorists and the media were telling us it will happen over 600 million times by now, and it never happened.

There WAS a Tet Offensive, it just wasn't reported to us in the US as it really happened. Uncle Walter Crankcase and his buddies in the media kept portraying it as a huge defeat for the US, with their incessant intoning about the body count. What they NEVER told us was that it was a resounding defeat for the North Vietnamese, though, because of the continuing negative media, and the accompanying polls proclaiming the public's tiring of the war, the President and his advisors began to get cold feet. This allowed the North Vietnamese to re-group, then start making demands of the US, to which Johnson, and later Nixon complied.

Thanks to Senators like Teddy Kennedy, and traitors like John Kerry who met with the North Vietnamese and undermined our government's efforts, the Vietnam war is considered a major defeat for the US by the liberals. They have used it as a club ever since to undermine any military efforts our govenment might make anywhere in the world. It wasn't until Desert Storm, then the 9/11 attacks that the libs began to lose their stranglehold on both the minds of the public, and the attitudes in government.

[jveritas]

I mean the presumed TET offensive by the terrorists in Iraq where the DLM (Defeated Liberal Media) has been telling us that it was going to happen so many times but to theior chagrin it never happened because it cannot happen.

Please see my comment # 28 regrading the TET offensive in Vietnam.

[leadpenny]

Latest is 11 dead: Six American Blackwater employees, three Bulgarian crew members and two Filipino security personnel. Also, one Blackwater employee died near Ramali from an IED. Pentagon briefing coming up in a few minutes. MSNBC said they will cover.

[leadpenny]

http://www.blackwaterusa.com/

Statement of Blackwater USA
Regarding Attacks on Contractors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2005

For Media Inquiry Only - Contact: Chris Bertelli, Phone: 202-339-8964


Private security contractor Blackwater USA confirms the loss of seven of its contractors to terrorist attacks in Iraq today. All seven were Americans.

“This is a very sad day for the Blackwater family,” said Blackwater USA President Gary Jackson. “We lost seven of our friends to attacks by terrorists in Iraq and our thoughts and prayers go out to their family members.”

The seven Blackwater contractors were killed in two separate incidents today. Six were passengers in a commercial helicopter operated by Sky Link under contract to Blackwater in support of a Department of Defense contract. The helicopter was on its way to Tikrit from Baghdad when it appears to have been shot down. The specifics of the attack are not yet known.

One contractor was killed when an improvised explosive device was detonated next to a Blackwater armored personnel carrier near Ramadi. One contractor was also injured in that attack. Those contractors were also working under a contract with the Department of Defense.

Blackwater personnel are in the process of notifying in person the families of those killed today. In addition, Blackwater has a 15-member team of crisis counselors working with those family members to assist them in coping with the loss of their loved ones.

Blackwater is not releasing the names or other personal information of those killed pending notification of their families.

[ExSoldier]

Blackwater is one of many PMC's Private Military Company. They hire elite former SpecOps folks, to perform essentially their former military skills for tons more money. Earning up to $3,000 per day, non taxable, they earn every penny as today's incident shows.

I've known a few folks who both applied to work for them and a few who were accepted and are currently employed. Total pros everyone. I guess you'd call them mercs, but these guys wouldn't just fight for top dollar, they're all patriots. Here's a chance to really use their skills and earn a real retirement....if they live. I know somebody (not really a "bud" I just know him) who just quit their operation after three years nonstop in the field in various hot spots. Now, he's literally loaded.

[SuziQ]

Oh, ok. the alleged IRAQI Tet. ;o) Yeah, the MSM is working really hard to try to convince the American people that Iraq is a quagmire, but it ain't workin! We have too many sources for the news these days, not the least of which is the soldiers themselves in their letters and e-mails home!

[LAURENTIJ]

http://www.ogrish.com/archives/2005/april/ogrish-dot-com-helicopter_downed2.wmv

Video of one of the survivors being shot afterwards. One of the most brutal allahu akbar ones yet.

[Right Angler]

My aren't they the brave warriors? Sadistic, cowardly animal bastards.... Hope they get everything that's coming to them.

[LAURENTIJ]

What is it about islam that makes people kill wounded people begging for help like that while screaming their little death chant?

It's so beyond insane. I've seen all these videos, but this one's making me physically ill with anger.

[Right Angler]

Pure cowardice, or as Bill Maher would put it, real courage...

[Moderate right-winger]

this is the unfortunate but necessary price for policing Iraq.