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thedrifter
01-09-06, 07:39 AM
Copter crash, attacks leave 17 U.S. dead
Army craft with 12 aboard goes down in severe weather
- Nelson Hernandez, Bassam Sebti, Washington Post
Monday, January 9, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle

Baghdad -- An Army helicopter crashed in bad weather in northern Iraq shortly before midnight Saturday, killing all 12 Americans on aboard, military authorities reported Sunday, and five Marines were killed in action in separate incidents over the past two days.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was flying between bases with another helicopter when communications were lost, the military said in a statement. A search mission found the helicopter's wreckage at noon Sunday in a sparsely populated area about 7 miles east of the northern city of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border.

"All (those killed) are believed to be U.S. citizens," military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said.

The military later said that eight service members and four civilians were aboard.

The crash was the deadliest for the military since January 2005, when 31 troops were killed when a transport helicopter crashed, also near the Syrian border.

Capt. Bill Roberts, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said the cause of the helicopter crash Saturday night was under investigation but emphasized that it crashed during a night mission in northern Iraq while encountering severe weather.

He said the desert near Tal Afar was experiencing thunderstorms and high winds at the time of the crash.

The military said the helicopter had been flying in support of Task Force Band of Brothers, a unit of the coalition forces that is largely made up of troops from the 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Ky.

The task force's area of operations is northern Iraq. The city of Tal Afar has been a major focus of U.S. military operations in recent months. U.S. military commanders see it as one of the main lines of communication and support for the country's Sunni Arab insurgency.

"Our prayers are with the families of the aircraft crew and passengers," Army Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, the spokesman for the 101st Airborne, said in an e-mail.

The five Marines were killed in several attacks in central Iraq, the military reported. Three of the Marines were killed by gunfire Sunday morning in separate attacks in the city of Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, the military reported. The two others were killed when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs Saturday in the towns of Karma and Ferris near Fallujah, the military reported.

Military authorities would not release the names of any of the 17 Americans killed, or provide more details on the circumstances of their deaths, until their relatives could be notified.

There have been nearly two dozen fatal helicopter crashes in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, killing at least 144 people, according to a tally by the Associated Press.

Some of the helicopter wrecks have been accidents, and others have been the result of hostile fire.

Bad weather and sandstorms have played roles in previous U.S. helicopter crashes in Iraq, including the January 2005 accident. Sandstorms and swirling sand caused by bad weather can disorient helicopter pilots, especially when they are operating in the dark and using night-vision goggles.

Military experts have said such storms can lead crews to momentarily lose their ability to distinguish up from down.

With the latest Marine deaths, at least 2,199 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. That toll did not include those killed aboard the Black Hawk.

In Baghdad, efforts to form a national government continued following parliamentary elections held Dec. 15. In the latest move, a coalition of Kurdish parties announced that it would nominate Jalal Talabani, the country's president, to a new term.

It was unclear whether Talabani would accept the nomination as Iraq's head of state, given that he has lobbied to be given a bigger role in running the country.

"The acceptance or the rejection of the president to this post is up to him personally," Kamran Qaradaghi, Talabani's spokesman, said in a statement. "President Talabani has stressed many times that he must get more powers to accept this post."

Sunni Arab and Shiite parties greeted the nomination coolly. Bahaa al-Araji, a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, a group of Shiite parties, said his group respected the decision but would prefer to have a Sunni Arab in the job.

Also in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a predawn raid Sunday on the Umm al-Qura mosque, which serves as the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading Sunni religious group.

The association said the raid was a violation of a holy place. Muthana Harith Dhari, a member of the association, said at a news conference Sunday that U.S. troops had detained five people and ransacked the mosque's library and computer stations looking for information.

"We call it a battle, to describe the kind of attack against the mosque and the headquarters of the association," Dhari said.

While the association has regularly inveighed against the U.S. presence in Iraq, it also has often issued statements condemning suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings carried out by insurgents across the country.

Also in Baghdad, a French engineer taken hostage last month was released. In a statement, the French government said Bernard Planche would return to France soon.

A government spokesman said French President Jacques Chirac was "delighted by the happy outcome."

Planche, who worked for a non-governmental organization, was kidnapped Dec. 5 while traveling to work at a water plant in Baghdad.

A videotape was later released showing Planche sitting between two armed men who denounced the "illegal French presence" in Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the country.

The French government, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, has not sent forces to Iraq.

UH-60 Black Hawk

Primary function: Provide air assault and tactical transport

Armament: Two machine guns

Length: 64.9 feet (with rotors)

Speed: 184 mph

Range: 368 miles

Crew: Four

Troop capacity: Up to 11 soldiers

Sources: ESRI; U.S. Army

Ellie