Posted on 04/21/2005 4:23:15 AM PDT by 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.
US?
According to Fox News, it was a civilian helicopter used by some business in Iraq.
Bomb hidden on board, perhaps?
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.
I had no idea there were business choppers in Iraq. Thanks.
Helicopter Downed in Iraq, Nine Dead - U.S. Sources
Thu Apr 21, 2005 07:19 AM ETBAGHDAD (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.
"Insurgents are hitting back this month."
Call them by what they really are: Islamic Terrorists.
Reported as being taken down by an RPG
More likely scenario...those things are pretty big..slow, low, and hard to miss..
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.
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.
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.
bump
James Hattori, MSNBC, reporting three Bulgarian and six employees of Blackwater were killed in the crash.
Bulgarians were the helicopter crew members.
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.
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