Apache attack helicopters scoured the area around the crash site in Tikrit, 175 km north of Baghdad, hunting for guerillas near Saddam Hussein’s hometown who may have brought down the Black Hawk.
If confirmed to have been attacked by insurgents, it would be the third US helicopter shot down in two weeks for an overall loss of 22 lives.
The US military said two US soldiers had also been killed in the northern city of Mosul, one in a bomb attack on Thursday morning and one in an ambush on Friday.
“At approximately 9am (1100am PST) this morning, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down,” Major Josslyn Aberle of the 4th Infantry Division told reporters. “At this stage we don’t know if it was due to mechanical failure or another reason.”
Soldiers in Tikrit said initial reports suggested the helicopter had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
A column of smoke rose from the crash site, and US troops sealed off the area. Soldiers at the base said they heard two explosions and ran outside to see the destroyed helicopter.
The army said the helicopter had burst into flames after crashing on the banks of the Tigris river.
The US military reimposed a night-time curfew around Tikrit from 11pm as a result of the incident. The curfew had been lifted for the holy month of Ramazan.
After nightfall, attackers fired two mortar bombs into the army’s main compound in Tikrit but caused no casualties. The base has come under fire many times in recent months but the attacks have lacked the accuracy needed to cause major damage.
FRONTLINE HELICOPTER: The Black Hawk is the US army’s frontline utility helicopter, designed to carry 11 combat-ready assault troops, and is also used for medical evacuations.
Last Sunday, guerrillas shot down a US Chinook helicopter west of Baghdad as it carried troops on a rest and recreation break, killing 16 American soldiers in the deadliest single strike on US-led forces since they invaded to oust Saddam.
On Oct 25, guerillas brought down a Black Hawk in Tikrit, hitting one of its engines with an RPG. The helicopter made an emergency landing and all five crew members escaped before it was engulfed in flames.
In Mosul, gunmen with RPGs killed one soldier and wounded six other soldiers in an ambush on a US convoy on Friday, Sergeant Kelly Tyler of the 101st Airborne Division told Reuters.
A soldier from the same division was killed in a roadside bomb blast on a highway near Mosul on Thursday, the Army said.
The attacks brought to at least 141 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action since Washington declared major combat over on May 1 — more than the 114 killed in March and April.
Tyler said there had been a marked increase in attacks around Mosul over recent days.
“Over the last few days, attacks have increased and more significantly, the effects have been greater,” Tyler said.
Near the restive town of Baquba, hundreds of US troops backed up by armoured vehicles raided a village on Friday. Local people said the troops were hunting for Rashid Taan Kazim, a former regional chairman of Saddam’s Baath Party who is number 49 on a US list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqi fugitives.
The raid ended without anybody on the most-wanted list being captured, US officers in the town northeast of Baghdad said.
In another series of raids around Qusayba on the Syrian border, members of an “anti-Coalition cell” were detained, the Army said. It said the operation, named “All American Tiger”, also seized weapons and pro-Saddam paraphernalia.
Saddam — top of the list with a $25 million price on his head — remains on the run.—Reuters