U.S. Army helicopter has been shot down

BREAKING NEWS A U.S. Army helicopter has been shot down with small arms fire near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, the military said. Details soon.

http://www.cnn.com/

TASK FORCE LIBERTY HELICOPTERS ATTACKED NEAR BAQUBAH

TIKRIT, Iraq - Two Task Force Liberty helicopters received small arms fire while conducting operations in support of Coalition Forces near Baqubah at about 10:50 p.m. May 26.

One aircraft landed safely at a Coalition Forces base after sustaining damage. The other aircraft crashed and the status of the aircrew is unknown at this time.

Coalition Forces responded to the scene and secured the site.

The incident is under investigation.

http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20050535.txt

Looks like CNN is relying on press releases.

Damn. Hope they weren't real bad guys.

http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/News_Release.asp?NewsRelease=20050534.txt

Caught up in some sweep or something like that, since that is what the vast majority of prisoners there are.

Maybe it's just me.

There are/were more cops in NYC than there were terrorists.

Wonder what the number of hard-core AQ-types is now?

I think. It's been hugely overblown, that whole "al-Qaida" business. Most of the bombs that have been going off around the world have been local groups opposed to their respective governments, and in Iraq, well, some may call themselves al-Qaida but it's more of a franchise where anyone can pick up the name if they want, without having anything to do with the al-Qaida that was or is associated with Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri.

But if you mean guerrilla fighters and potential suicide bombers, the war in Iraq has probably led to an upswing in recruitment.

what has become of him? I haven't heard his name in a long time.

(I mean the Egyptian doctor. I know that Zarqawi comes and goes between life and death, and one leg or two.)

That is, outside of the circles within which such things are known. He reportedly was with Bin Ladin in Tora Bora when they were able to escape into Pakistan because the order to attack never came to the special forces that had (almost) encircled them. After that incident, he appears to have disappeared off the face of the Earth.

He is known to be a master of disguise, though. He's also suspected of being a big player in the global heroin trade. My guess is that he's sipping margaritas in the Caribbean.

war and prison and oil, profits all around

considering the fact that the Red Cross estimates 90% of detainees there are innocent.

We are inextricably entangled in a decade long 'war' requiring massive cash infusions to defense contractors, Bush was relected to a 2nd term, and US corporations have access to Iraqi oil contracts.

And with four permanent bases, the US can keep the pressure on Syria and Iran.

Massive military spending can continue.

Things are going as planned.

they elected his policies. They reap what they sow. Unfortunately, everyone who didn't vote for the NeoCon war machine also has to pay for this choice.

US helicopter has crashed in Iraq, after coming under small arms fire, the US military has said.

Two helicopters were conducting operations near Baquba, 60km (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Both were hit; one crashed and the other managed to land safely at a nearby airbase. The fate of the crew is still unknown.

The American military has secured the scene of the crash, US Central Command said in a statement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4585169.stm

Unfortunately. If they've secured the site of the crash but haven't secured the crew, then it is a very good bet that the crew has been killed in the crash.

The fate of the two-person crew is unknown, according to a statement issued by the military

Must not be any reporters left in NE of Baghdad.

to be safe? Under control? Or was southern Iraq supposed to be okay now? Oh wait, didn't they have something bad happen there yesterday.

This is probably related to that supposed operation.

with their supposed security cordon around bagdhad. How many of them have cousins, uncles, brothers, etc. in the insurgency?

Probably two KIAs in this incident and it makes cnn.com breaking news while 1/2 dozen could be killed in a couple of IEDs over a couple of days and yet that news would be buried.

I guess copter crashes are more titillating for the media.

You can do the math on that one.

:(

Helicopters are not considered a disposable commodities like soldiers. Of course with the way their recruiting efforts have been going that might soon change.

any threat to our complete control of the air is a threat to our military viability in a hostile environment.

We know this. The insurgents know this. The enemies we are creating in the second tier of world powers know this.

The insurgents have to be out trying to acquire serious shit to go after our close air support. It is only a matter of time before they manage to pose serious challenges.

The first one was the Bulgarian commercial helicopter carrying the Blackwater employees on April 21 and now this one today.

Either they've been training or they've found better weapons. Either way, this is not a good development for US troops stuck there, in this quagmire of death Bush has cultivated.

In the Russian war in Afghanistan, resistance fighters figured out at one point that the fuel tank and filler cap on a Russian Hind helicopter was almost exactly in the middle of the big red star painted out on the side. One lucky shot there and boom, the chopper came down.

After this information got around, the Russians started losing helicopters to regular RPGs and even long rifle shots.

Other developments

U.S. and Iraqi forces involved in an offensive in the western city of Haditha have detained five suspected insurgents, the U.S. Marines said Thursday. One Marine died and at least 10 insurgents were killed Wednesday, the first day of Operation New Market. Since the start of the war, 1,649 U.S. forces have died in Iraq.


.......The U.S. military said authorities are searching for three detainees who escaped from Abu Ghraib prison before sunrise Thursday. Forces discovered "two holes in the compound fence," a military statement said.


At least 10 people died in a series of attacks Thursday in the Iraqi capital, police said. Gunmen killed six people in three separate attacks -- including a college professor and three bodyguards; a Shiite restaurant owner; and Thamir Ni'ma Ghaydan, an Industry Ministry official. A member of the Shiite party al-Dawa, Fakri Abed al-Amri, was knifed to death, and a suicide bomb in a taxi killed two police officers and a civilian and wounded six others, police said.


An Iraqi child died Thursday during a shootout between insurgents and coalition forces in northern Iraq's Tal Afar, the U.S. military said. The military said insurgents had used the child as a shield.

They did just take on two US helicopters at one time. That act in itself would suggest they felt some level of confidence in their abilities.

Have they released how many crew were on board on the helicopter and what type it was? that crashed, I know the other one got away. It seems the media arent giving much details.

Can you imgaine what family members of helicopter pliots in Iraq must be goign through right now, not knowing if thier love ones were on oard.

It was either:

A) An OH-58 Kiowa



or

B) An OH-6 / Defender 500 / AH-6J Little Bird

hate to use fox as a source, but here it is -

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157821,00.html

TWO US soldiers were killed in Iraq when their helicopter crashed after being shot at north of Baghdad, the US military said today.

"Two Task Force Liberty soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed near Baquba on May 26," it said.

It said two helicopters came under small arms fire near Baquba north of Baghdad.One crashed while the other landed safely at a US base.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15422055%255E1702,00.html

1) "One of the choppers was damaged but landed safely at a nearby base. The other, however, went down, and the crew members' bodies have been recovered from the wreckage."

That's official, then. Sixty-six killed so far this month and 1653 killed since the onset of operations in March 2003. And we still have one bloody weekend to go this month of May...

2) "Al-Duleimi, one of a handful of Sunni Muslims in the Shiite-led government, called on all Iraqis to stand up to an insurgency that has raged unabated for more than a year."

Um, the insurgency began promptly immediately upon the fall of Baghdad, so it has actually raged unabated for TWO YEARS now. Even the rosy-eyed optimists in the DoD have to date the insurgency to at least the UN bombing in August 2003, again damn close to two years. What's this "for more than a year" business, eh Fox?

Been there, done that!

I can't get angry anymore. I just feel so sad. I can't even imagine how angry and betrayed those guys must feel, even if they can't say it.

Somehow, they manage to turn this into a story about Zarqawi maybe being injured!!!!!

Chopper down but never fear! Freedom's on the march!!!! Ride the wave of freedom! :banghead:

:shrug:

headless one-legged dead guy...