thedrifter
01-21-07, 07:13 AM
At least 19 U.S. troops killed in Iraq
Most perish in a copter crash. U.S. asserts cause is unknown; a witness says craft was downed.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
January 21, 2007
BAGHDAD — At least 19 U.S. troops were killed in a helicopter crash and insurgent attacks across Iraq on Saturday in the deadliest day for the American military here in nearly two years.
The U.S. military also reported the deaths of two other troops the previous day, and the surge in fatalities just days before President Bush's State of the Union address was likely to inject a note of urgency into the debate over his Iraq policy.
The day's deadliest episode was the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter northeast of Baghdad on Saturday afternoon, killing all 12 U.S. soldiers aboard. The military initially had said 13 were killed but revised it to 12 early today.
South of the capital in the Shiite Muslim city of Karbala, men armed with grenades, mortars and assault rifles swarmed a provincial security building manned by U.S. and Iraqi forces, the military said. At least five U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded.
Four more U.S. troops and 44 Iraqis were also reported killed or found dead Saturday in politically motivated violence as Iraqi and American forces stepped up an effort to target Shiite militiamen and Sunni Arab insurgents.
U.S. military officials said the cause of Saturday's crash had yet to be determined, but Iraqi sources said it was shot down. A witness said he saw ground fire bring down the aircraft, and an insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet posting that could not be authenticated.
Iraqi officials and witnesses said the crash took place near the town of Buhriz in the region of Tarefiya, a rural Sunni enclave of canals and wheat fields about six miles south of Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province. The area is known as an insurgent stronghold. A recent joint U.S.-Iraqi military offensive focused on Diyala.
Claiming responsibility
A message posted on the Web by the Mujahedin Army, an insurgent group that operates out of Baghdad and Diyala provinces, claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The helicopter was downed by [an] antiaircraft [rocket] that belongs to the Mujahedin Army in Buhriz," said the statement, posted to a website where insurgent claims are frequently trumpeted.
An Iraqi witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the helicopter was felled by ground fire.
"I'm not sure if it was a rocket or other projectile," said the man, a farmer. "After the helicopter was fired upon, it was obvious that it was losing control. Then it crashed with an explosion and the smoke started." The farmer said he and others dared not approach the wreckage to look for survivors, fearing that U.S. forces arriving on the scene might fire at them.
The U.S. military could not confirm the account. Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle, a military spokeswoman in Baghdad, said that the crash took place northeast of Baghdad about 3 p.m.
"All passengers and crew were military service members," she wrote in response to an e-mailed query, adding that more information was expected today. The military withheld names of the victims pending notification of family members.
An Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity said U.S. forces had cordoned off a vast area of farmland and sheep pastures.
The U.S. military increasingly has come to rely on helicopters to transport troops between bases as roadside bombs target vehicle convoys. "There are helicopters flying over the area all the time," said the farmer.
Saturday's crash was the first since a U.S. Marine CH-53 transport chopper went down in an accident in Al Anbar province Dec. 11, killing one Marine. Insurgents last shot down a helicopter on May 14, near the village of Yousifiya south of the capital; two soldiers died in that attack.
The deadliest day for American service members in Iraq was Jan. 26, 2005, when 37 U.S. troops were killed, 31 of them in the accidental crash of a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in Al Anbar.
The Karbala clash erupted as U.S. and Iraqi officials planned security for the Ashura festival, an annual Shiite pilgrimage. Karbala has come under the sway of Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, but it also is adjacent to Sunni areas. A statement released by the military did not clarify whether the attackers were suspected Sunni or Shiite gunmen.
New U.S. troops arrive
The sharp rise in American military deaths comes as the U.S. intensifies its efforts to curb violence in Baghdad, with Pentagon planners and White House officials pushing forward with a plan to increase the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq by 21,500.
The first of the additional troops, the 3,200 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, have arrived in Baghdad and will be "fully operational" within two weeks, the U.S. military said today in a statement. Their mission will be to help Iraqi security forces "clear, control and retain key areas" of Baghdad "to reduce violence and to set the conditions for a transition to full Iraqi control of security in the city," the military said.
Bush and other supporters of the plan say it is an essential move to give the Iraqi government breathing space to crack down on violent groups and heal political wounds.
Opponents, including Democratic Party leaders in Congress and some skeptical Republicans, consider it a risky escalation that could bolster anti-American sentiment in Iraq and across the Middle East, and lead to more U.S. casualties. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 3,047 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, according to icasualties.org.
Four other Americans were reported killed in separate incidents.
One soldier in northern Baghdad and another in northern Iraq were killed Saturday when their convoys struck roadside bombs, and the U.S. military reported that two troops had died the previous day.
A soldier assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division near Mosul died Friday from injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device, the official term for a roadside bomb. Two soldiers were injured in the bombing. And a Marine died of wounds he sustained Friday in combat in Al Anbar, a news release said.
U.S. military leaders have identified Shiite militias as the greatest threat to Iraq's stability. American troops raided the capital's main emergency hospital Saturday morning, seizing the weapons of security guards believed to be linked to Sadr's Al Mahdi militia, hospital and police officials said.
Iraqi forces said the U.S. military seized AK-47s and machine guns ostensibly used by the guards to protect the facility, which has come under repeated attack by insurgents.
One hospital employee said the Americans searched the hospital for a person who allegedly belongs to the Al Mahdi army. They were not able to identify the individual, and the guards were released after being told they'd face arrest if they were seen with weapons again, Iraqi officials at the hospital said.
Iraq's Health Ministry is controlled by Shiites loyal to Sadr. U.S. military commanders have complained privately that Sadr loyalists have turned the ministry into a political and fundraising tool. Sunnis complain that they're denied healthcare services or targeted for kidnapping and assassination upon entering state-controlled hospitals and clinics.
"It is known by everyone in Iraq that [the ministry] is fully occupied by Sadrists and the Mahdi army," said Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni lawmaker. "They removed all the previous officials and they got new ones. Everybody there has to swear his loyalty to the Mahdi army and Muqtada Sadr, otherwise he will not stay."
The 5:30 a.m. raid on Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital followed Friday arrest of Sheik Abdul-Hadi Darraji, a Sadr deputy and frequent spokesman, by U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Sunni suspects detained
U.S. forces also detained 25 people they described as suspected terrorists in Sunni enclaves north and west of Baghdad, a news release said.
Authorities in Baghdad said they discovered the bodies of 29 Iraqi civilians, all apparently victims of sectarian death squads, that had been dumped in various parts of the capital.
Mortar battles between neighboring Shiite and Sunni enclaves in northern Baghdad left at least four dead and 18 injured. Gunmen ambushed and killed a ranking Ministry of Interior official in northern Baghdad.
Near the provincial capital of Hillah, south of Baghdad, authorities discovered the bullet-riddled body of a man in his 30s. Unidentified gunmen in another town opened fire on a crowd, killing one.
Gunmen in the town of Madaen, a suburb south of the capital, broke into two houses and killed three people, including two women.
daragahi@latimes.com
Times staff writers Said Rifai and Mohammed Rasheed and special correspondents in Baghdad, Baqubah, Hillah and Kirkuk contributed to this report.
Ellie
Most perish in a copter crash. U.S. asserts cause is unknown; a witness says craft was downed.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
January 21, 2007
BAGHDAD — At least 19 U.S. troops were killed in a helicopter crash and insurgent attacks across Iraq on Saturday in the deadliest day for the American military here in nearly two years.
The U.S. military also reported the deaths of two other troops the previous day, and the surge in fatalities just days before President Bush's State of the Union address was likely to inject a note of urgency into the debate over his Iraq policy.
The day's deadliest episode was the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter northeast of Baghdad on Saturday afternoon, killing all 12 U.S. soldiers aboard. The military initially had said 13 were killed but revised it to 12 early today.
South of the capital in the Shiite Muslim city of Karbala, men armed with grenades, mortars and assault rifles swarmed a provincial security building manned by U.S. and Iraqi forces, the military said. At least five U.S. soldiers were killed and three wounded.
Four more U.S. troops and 44 Iraqis were also reported killed or found dead Saturday in politically motivated violence as Iraqi and American forces stepped up an effort to target Shiite militiamen and Sunni Arab insurgents.
U.S. military officials said the cause of Saturday's crash had yet to be determined, but Iraqi sources said it was shot down. A witness said he saw ground fire bring down the aircraft, and an insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet posting that could not be authenticated.
Iraqi officials and witnesses said the crash took place near the town of Buhriz in the region of Tarefiya, a rural Sunni enclave of canals and wheat fields about six miles south of Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province. The area is known as an insurgent stronghold. A recent joint U.S.-Iraqi military offensive focused on Diyala.
Claiming responsibility
A message posted on the Web by the Mujahedin Army, an insurgent group that operates out of Baghdad and Diyala provinces, claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The helicopter was downed by [an] antiaircraft [rocket] that belongs to the Mujahedin Army in Buhriz," said the statement, posted to a website where insurgent claims are frequently trumpeted.
An Iraqi witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the helicopter was felled by ground fire.
"I'm not sure if it was a rocket or other projectile," said the man, a farmer. "After the helicopter was fired upon, it was obvious that it was losing control. Then it crashed with an explosion and the smoke started." The farmer said he and others dared not approach the wreckage to look for survivors, fearing that U.S. forces arriving on the scene might fire at them.
The U.S. military could not confirm the account. Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle, a military spokeswoman in Baghdad, said that the crash took place northeast of Baghdad about 3 p.m.
"All passengers and crew were military service members," she wrote in response to an e-mailed query, adding that more information was expected today. The military withheld names of the victims pending notification of family members.
An Iraqi official who spoke on condition of anonymity said U.S. forces had cordoned off a vast area of farmland and sheep pastures.
The U.S. military increasingly has come to rely on helicopters to transport troops between bases as roadside bombs target vehicle convoys. "There are helicopters flying over the area all the time," said the farmer.
Saturday's crash was the first since a U.S. Marine CH-53 transport chopper went down in an accident in Al Anbar province Dec. 11, killing one Marine. Insurgents last shot down a helicopter on May 14, near the village of Yousifiya south of the capital; two soldiers died in that attack.
The deadliest day for American service members in Iraq was Jan. 26, 2005, when 37 U.S. troops were killed, 31 of them in the accidental crash of a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter in Al Anbar.
The Karbala clash erupted as U.S. and Iraqi officials planned security for the Ashura festival, an annual Shiite pilgrimage. Karbala has come under the sway of Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, but it also is adjacent to Sunni areas. A statement released by the military did not clarify whether the attackers were suspected Sunni or Shiite gunmen.
New U.S. troops arrive
The sharp rise in American military deaths comes as the U.S. intensifies its efforts to curb violence in Baghdad, with Pentagon planners and White House officials pushing forward with a plan to increase the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq by 21,500.
The first of the additional troops, the 3,200 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, have arrived in Baghdad and will be "fully operational" within two weeks, the U.S. military said today in a statement. Their mission will be to help Iraqi security forces "clear, control and retain key areas" of Baghdad "to reduce violence and to set the conditions for a transition to full Iraqi control of security in the city," the military said.
Bush and other supporters of the plan say it is an essential move to give the Iraqi government breathing space to crack down on violent groups and heal political wounds.
Opponents, including Democratic Party leaders in Congress and some skeptical Republicans, consider it a risky escalation that could bolster anti-American sentiment in Iraq and across the Middle East, and lead to more U.S. casualties. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, 3,047 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, according to icasualties.org.
Four other Americans were reported killed in separate incidents.
One soldier in northern Baghdad and another in northern Iraq were killed Saturday when their convoys struck roadside bombs, and the U.S. military reported that two troops had died the previous day.
A soldier assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division near Mosul died Friday from injuries sustained from an improvised explosive device, the official term for a roadside bomb. Two soldiers were injured in the bombing. And a Marine died of wounds he sustained Friday in combat in Al Anbar, a news release said.
U.S. military leaders have identified Shiite militias as the greatest threat to Iraq's stability. American troops raided the capital's main emergency hospital Saturday morning, seizing the weapons of security guards believed to be linked to Sadr's Al Mahdi militia, hospital and police officials said.
Iraqi forces said the U.S. military seized AK-47s and machine guns ostensibly used by the guards to protect the facility, which has come under repeated attack by insurgents.
One hospital employee said the Americans searched the hospital for a person who allegedly belongs to the Al Mahdi army. They were not able to identify the individual, and the guards were released after being told they'd face arrest if they were seen with weapons again, Iraqi officials at the hospital said.
Iraq's Health Ministry is controlled by Shiites loyal to Sadr. U.S. military commanders have complained privately that Sadr loyalists have turned the ministry into a political and fundraising tool. Sunnis complain that they're denied healthcare services or targeted for kidnapping and assassination upon entering state-controlled hospitals and clinics.
"It is known by everyone in Iraq that [the ministry] is fully occupied by Sadrists and the Mahdi army," said Saleh Mutlak, a Sunni lawmaker. "They removed all the previous officials and they got new ones. Everybody there has to swear his loyalty to the Mahdi army and Muqtada Sadr, otherwise he will not stay."
The 5:30 a.m. raid on Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital followed Friday arrest of Sheik Abdul-Hadi Darraji, a Sadr deputy and frequent spokesman, by U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Sunni suspects detained
U.S. forces also detained 25 people they described as suspected terrorists in Sunni enclaves north and west of Baghdad, a news release said.
Authorities in Baghdad said they discovered the bodies of 29 Iraqi civilians, all apparently victims of sectarian death squads, that had been dumped in various parts of the capital.
Mortar battles between neighboring Shiite and Sunni enclaves in northern Baghdad left at least four dead and 18 injured. Gunmen ambushed and killed a ranking Ministry of Interior official in northern Baghdad.
Near the provincial capital of Hillah, south of Baghdad, authorities discovered the bullet-riddled body of a man in his 30s. Unidentified gunmen in another town opened fire on a crowd, killing one.
Gunmen in the town of Madaen, a suburb south of the capital, broke into two houses and killed three people, including two women.
daragahi@latimes.com
Times staff writers Said Rifai and Mohammed Rasheed and special correspondents in Baghdad, Baqubah, Hillah and Kirkuk contributed to this report.
Ellie