U.S. helicopter fired on in Iraq, crashes
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-27 08:39

A U.S. helicopter has crashed in Iraq after being shot at and the fate of its crew remains unknown, the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday.

It said two helicopters received small arms fire near Baquba 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad on Thursday night.

One sustained damage but landed safely at a U.S. base and the "other aircraft crashed and the status of the aircrew is unknown at this time," the statement said.

"Coalition forces responded to the scene and secured the site," it said.

A defense official at the Pentagon in Washington said the aircraft was an OH-58 Kiowa, a single-engine two-seater helicopter.

The official had no word on casualties. He said there was no confirmation that the helicopter was shot down.

Insurgents, who appear to have launched a fresh wave of violence in Iraq, frequently fire on U.S. aircraft and have brought down several helicopters before.

Iraqi ministers said on Thursday the government would pour tens of thousands of Iraqi troops into Baghdad in an unprecedented operation to seal off the city and hunt insurgents.

Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said 40,000 Iraqi troops would be deployed in Baghdad for Operation Thunder, the biggest Iraqi military operation since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Backed by the 10,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad, they will set up hundreds of checkpoints and block roads into the capital.

The move comes a day after U.S. forces launched Operation New Market, a security sweep in the town of Haditha, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad, where 1,000 U.S. Marines and sailors, backed by Iraqi troops, are searching for militants.

Operation New Market is the second major offensive in the area this month as U.S. and Iraqi forces step up their hunt for followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who heads al Qaeda's network in Iraq.

The U.S. military said a Marine was killed by gunfire during the operation on Wednesday. Since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, at least 1,647 American military personnel have lost their lives in Iraq.

DEFENSIVE TO OFFENSIVE

The dramatic rise in suicide bombings and ambushes by mostly Sunni Arab guerrillas has killed more than 600 Iraqis in the last four weeks and raised fears that Iraq could slide toward civil war if the Shi'ite-led government does not deliver on pledges of stability.

Dulaimi said the crackdown would expand to other parts of Iraq after starting in Baghdad. But he did not say where the extra troops would come from or what their level of training would be. Many Iraqi troops are undertrained and underequipped.

"These operations will aim to turn the government's role from defensive to offensive," Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabor said at a news conference announcing the operation.

Despite the announcement, attacks persisted nationwide, with at least 15 people killed in bomb blasts and shootings.

An Internet posting this week apparently from the al Qaeda organization in Iraq said Zarqawi, for whom Washington is offering a $25 million bounty, had been wounded in fighting, although it did not say when, where or how.

Other reports on the Web said he had been shot in the chest, but these could not be independently confirmed.

Jabor said he had confirmation that Zarqawi had been wounded. But Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari later said there was no firm news. "We don't yet have accurate information on this matter," Jaafari told reporters.