New Iraqi insurgent video claims credit for downing US helicopter
The US military has announced that a helicopter has gone down in Iraq, the fifth such incident in less than three weeks. Al-Qaeda in Iraq promptly claimed responsibility.
"We just got confirmation that a helicopter did go down. The matter is under investigation," a US military spokesman told AFP Wednesday, without offering details on casualties or saying where the crash occurred.
Earlier the military said it was probing reports that a helicopter had gone down near Baghdad.
Another US military officer said the helicopter was a CH-46 and, "depending on the configuration, can carry up to 20 people."
However, it was not immediately known how many people were on board the crashed helicopter, he added without giving his name.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for shooting down what it said was a Chinook helicopter near Baghdad, saying in an Internet statement the aircraft was "completely burned."
The statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, said the helicopter was shot down in the Al-Karma region.
"An air defence unit of the Islamic state in Iraq operating in the Al-Karma region shot down a Chinook helicopter, which was completely burned, at 10:40 am (0740 GMT)," said the self-styled "Islamic state in Iraq," dominated by Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch.
"Hundreds of people saw the aircraft (coming down), their voices rising in chants of Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," the statement said.
The same group claimed an attack on a US Apache helicopter in the Taji region north of the Iraqi capital earlier this month.
On Sunday, the US military revealed that four US helicopters which had crashed since January 20, killing a total of 20 troops and private security guards, had been shot down by insurgents.
US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said it appeared as if the four helicopters had taken "some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire" which brought them down.
He said the incidents were not unusual as "there has been an ongoing effort since we have been here to target our helicopters."
The military was already changing its tactics to avoid more attacks, he told reporters.
A January 20 crash, in which 12 US troops were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter went down northeast of Baghdad, was one of the worst since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by US-led coalition forces.
On January 22, a US Blackwater helicopter went down in Baghdad killing four US private security guards.
On January 28, another military helicopter crashed north of the Shiite holy city of Najaf in central Iraq, killing two soldiers, while on February 2 a military chopper crashed north of Baghdad, killing two more troops.
Seventeen soldiers were killed on November 15, 2003 when two UH-60 Blackhawks crashed near the northern restive city of Mosul.
(Compiled from wire reports)
The following is a clip from a CNN report:
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