Posted on 08/11/2006 7:27:43 AM PDT by TexKat
The bodies of two American service members missing since a helicopter crash were found west of Baghdad, officials said Friday.
The U.S. military said the bodies of two American service members missing since a UH60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed Tuesday have been uncovered. The helicopter crashed in an undisclosed body of water during a routine flight in Anbar province west of the capital, and divers had been looking for the two Americans, U.S. officials said.
Meanwhile, gunmen loyal to a prominent Shiite cleric torched an office of the Iraqi president's Kurdish party Friday. Some 50 gunmen stormed the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by President Jalal Talabani, beat up the guards and set the building on fire, said police Lt. Othman al-Lami. The attackers accused the party's official newspaper of criticizing Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yacoubi.
According to the AP, the incident took place in Kut in northern Iraq. Pamphlets distributed by the attackers in Kut said the newspaper accused al-Yacoubi of trying to "ignite a war between the Arab Shiites and Kurds" by claiming that Kurds are targeting other ethnic groups.
They'll always bury this tidbit way deep in the story. The fact is, flying is inherently risky (not "dangerous"; risks can be and are managed, in accordance with mission requirements) and even in peacetime, accidents like these strike down some of our guys (and these days, gals) in their prime. The Army, and the other services, always try to study accidents to learn from them, but anyone who has flown, military or civilian, will often get a little "there but for the Grace of God..." thought at times like this.
In 26 years in the military, most of the really frightening memories I banked are accompanied by the aroma of JP-4 (or JP-8) and the sound of rotor blades. I knew a whole bunch of guys killed or crippled in helicopters. Only one of them in war (a Ranger school classmate was killed in a midair in Grenads... it was a combat mission, but still a pilot error accident. Errors happen when you are pushing hard).
May God bless the souls of these unfortunates, and grant their families strength.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
You know, it seems when people regularly organize themselves into groups known as "mobs", they are cavemen.
I can almost understand why Saddam spent so much time beating the piss out of some of them.
Sadly, it seems too large of a % of muslims just cannot accept a non-theocratic gov't. Of course, it must be THEIR flavor of theocracy. No wonder almost every conflict in the world today involve barbaric treatment of others by muslims.
We need to stand up to them, bigtime, and fast. Dont worry about hurting the feelings of someone who wants to cut your head off.
Oh, I don't think it was poorly worded. I think someone's trying to get the Kurds in deep doo-doo.
Shiite Mob Torches Kurdish Party Office
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Friday, August 11, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of two American service members missing since a helicopter crash this week were found west of Baghdad, officials said Friday, while gunmen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric torched an office of the Iraqi president's Kurdish party.
About 50 gunmen in the northern city of Kut stormed the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, headed by President Jalal Talabani, beat up the guards and set the building on fire, said police Lt. Othman al-Lami. The attackers accused the party's official newspaper of criticizing Shiite cleric Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yacoubi.
The raid in Kut was another demonstration of Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divisions that have exploded into violence, mostly between Shiite and Sunni Arabs. It came a day after a suicide bomber killed 35 people in front of Iraq's most sacred Shiite shrine, the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf.
The U.S. military said the bodies of two American service members missing since a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed Tuesday have been found. The helicopter crashed in an undisclosed body of water during a routine flight in Anbar province west of the capital, and divers had been looking for the two Americans, U.S. officials said.
Four others were injured in the crash, which was not believed to have been caused by hostile fire. The military did not say when or where the bodies were found.
The deaths raised to 2,597 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Pamphlets distributed by the attackers in Kut said the Kurdish newspaper accused al-Yacoubi of trying to "ignite a war between the Arab Shiites and Kurds" by claiming that Kurds are targeting other ethnic groups. The largely Sunni Kurds are a separate, non-Arab ethnic group.
The attackers fled after seizing three AK-47 rifles from the guards, al-Lami said. There were no officials in the office during the early morning raid.
In a statement Friday, Talabani acknowledged that some of the phrases used in his party newspaper's article were "inappropriate ... despite the bitterness" he and other Kurds felt over al-Yacoubi's statement. He said he was not aware of the article's contents until it was published.
Al-Yacoubi, the spiritual leader of the Fadhila, or Virtue, party, which is part of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite alliance, was not immediately available for comment.
However, Fadhila is demanding an official apology from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, said party spokesman Sabah al-Saiedi. Al-Yacoubi is urging his followers not to resort to violence, al-Saiedi said, after a party delegation met Friday with Talabani.
Iraq's rising sectarian and communal violence is claiming about 1,000 lives every month in the Baghdad area alone, raising fears of all-out civil war.
A Sunni extremist group, Jamaat Jund al-Sahaba or Soldiers of the Prophet's Companions, claimed responsibility for Thursday's bombing of the shrine.
In a statement posted on an Islamist Web site, the group warned that "our swords are capable of reaching deep in your regions" and accused Shiites of killing Sunnis.
Gunmen on Friday shot and killed three people in Baghdad and one in the northern city of Mosul in separate incidents, police said, and three unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
Agreed,you get it and I get it,but unfortunately a lot of people still think if we just show a little more kindness they'll come around.I haven't seen any evidence to support this idea.My analogy of "cavemen" is to point out the fact they don't seem interested in any way of living but their way.And the fact is they AREN"T trying to hide their agenda.Join their version of life or DIE !!!
IOW, friendly "fire.". . . it was a combat mission, but still a pilot error accident. Errors happen when you are pushing hard.
When the correlation of forces is such that the enemy/friendly casualty ratio is above 20:1, the result of "Errors happen when you are pushing hard" will be that friendly casualties from friendly fire and other operational accidents will be similar to the number of casualties from hostile fire. Or else you are not "pushing hard" enough to minimize your total casualties.
Bodies of missing US soldiers found Fri Aug 11, 6:41 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The bodies of two missing U.S. servicemen have been discovered among the wreckage of their helicopter which crashed in Iraq's Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Friday.
"We have recovered the bodies of the two missing soldiers from the wreckage of the aircraft," the military said in a statement concerning Tuesday's crash.
The U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing crashed into water and divers were needed to find and recover the men's bodies, the military said. The cause of the crash was a malfunction, not enemy action, and was being investigated, the statement added.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060811/ts_nm/iraq_usa_bodies_dc_3
Amen. It is so sad for young lives ended, for their company, for their families ... God bless them all.
The article which you posted in #27 was a complete Washington Post article, in violation of Free Republic's copyright restrictions.
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