BAGHDAD, Nov 15: Two US helicopters crashed in northern Iraq on Saturday, killing at
least 12 people aboard, after one was hit on the tail by a
rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), a US officer at the scene said.
The crashes, in which nine people on the two helicopters attached to the 101st Airborne Division were wounded, came hours after the announcement of a faster timetable for Iraqi self-rule.
The officer at the northern city of Mosul said: “I know one of the helicopters was hit by an RPG on the tail wing.”
Witnesses said the helicopters collided and came down in a residential area.
“I was watching TV when I heard a large explosion,” said local man Mohammad Badran. “I looked outside the window and saw two helicopters. One was flying low and was on fire. The other was higher up. The first one climbed and hit the higher one.”
Sirens wailed and US soldiers sealed off the area. There was no immediate information on any casualties on the ground.
EXPLOSION: A large explosion rocked central Baghdad on Saturday in an area “close to headquarters of Iraq’s US-led administration” while a train, carrying material for the American military, derailed North of Samara near Tikrit.
A US military spokesperson, while confirming the blast, said it was too early to know what happened or where.
Witnesses saw black smoke rising after the explosion near the national museum in the Iraqi capital.
In the meantime, a spokesperson for the US 4th Infantry Division, while giving details of the train derailment, said: “The line appeared to be broken by some kind of explosion.”
SOLDIER KILLED: A roadside bomb exploded as an army convoy drove by in Baghdad, killing one US soldier and wounding two, the US military said.
“An improvised explosive device exploded against a two-vehicle convoy in Baghdad today,” a spokeswoman said.
“The explosion resulted in the death of one soldier and the injury of two others,” she said.—Agencies
