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Us helicopter shot down { June 13 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52571-2003Jun12.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52571-2003Jun12.html
U.S. Helicopter Shot Down As Iraq Searches Intensify
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 13, 2003; Page A12
BAGHDAD, June 12 -- Iraqi guerrillas shot down a U.S. attack helicopter today as American forces continued to search several areas of central and western Iraq for forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein, U.S. military officials said.
The two-person crew of the AH-64 Apache gunship was quickly rescued by U.S. ground troops as another Apache continued to fire on the Iraqis. The crew members, both from the 101st Airborne Division, were not injured.
U.S. military officials refused to give the location of the incident, which coincided with a predawn air and ground assault on what they described as a terrorist camp about 90 miles northwest of Baghdad. Foreign fighters were at the camp, an old Iraqi military installation, said the officials, who provided no other details.
Today's combat, along with ongoing searches for former members of Hussein's intelligence services, military and militias, and raids on arms caches and arrests in other parts of the country, provided fresh evidence that U.S. military operations were accelerating. Ten U.S. troops have been killed in the past 19 days in central and western Iraq, an area that U.S. commanders have identified as a stronghold of groups bent on disrupting the American occupation.
Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, commander of the occupation force, said it will "take some time" to wipe out the continued "presence of regime loyalists." He repeated an assertion he made last week that attacks on U.S. forces were not part of a broader, planned resistance. He predicted a cycle of "action, reaction and counter-reaction" as U.S. troops try to end the ambushes.
"It's an adaptive enemy. We've seen more sophisticated methods of attacks on coalition forces, and we in turn will adapt our tactics," McKiernan told reporters in Baghdad. "Iraq is still considered a combat zone."
McKiernan offered an upbeat assessment of security in southern Iraq, declaring the area "stable and secure." However, he cautioned that "there are still subversive elements trying to gain traction in the south, be they political or paramilitary." U.S. officials have expressed concern that Iran is funding a militia group known as the Badr Brigade to "meddle" in Iraqi affairs.
In the far north, McKiernan said, the cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Irbil were "doing well."
The U.S. efforts to root out Hussein loyalists in western and central Iraq are covering areas that until recently had attracted little attention from American troops. In Thuluya, a lush, oasis-like town on the Tigris River northwest of Baghdad, soldiers continued to search motorists at checkpoints and to patrol in armored vehicles. The activity was part of Operation Peninsula Strike, which began around midnight Monday with raids on two dozen houses and the detention of nearly 400 residents. At least 100 have been released, U.S. officers said.
At one checkpoint today, at a bridge leading into Thuluya, a soldier warned a visitor: "Be careful, sir. There are a lot of bad guys here." At another checkpoint, troops led three men away in plastic handcuffs. Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Humvees and trucks guarded both checkpoints.
The streets of Thuluya were largely deserted in the searing summer heat. The Americans have imposed a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. Residents say that in the first, intense 36 hours of Operation Peninsula Strike, anyone found on the streets was arrested. Released detainees said they were asked their names, professions, marital status and whether they possessed weapons. They were also asked if they had connections to Saddam's Fedayeen, a paramilitary group loyal to the former president, Hussein's Baath Party, or religious or resistance organizations.
Residents complained of brutality during the house-to-house searches. One of them, Qahtun Abdoun, said U.S. soldiers shot and killed Hashem Mohamed Ani, 15, who had picked up a gun and tried to shoot the intruders.
At his news conference, McKiernan declined to discuss Iraqi casualties. No Americans were reported killed in the operation.
Mohamed Kanoush Hamed, a retired Iraqi general, was among those detained in the operation. The gate to his large house had apparently been rammed open by a military vehicle. The windshield of a Toyota Crown sedan was shattered. Inside his bedroom, a briefcase lay open and papers were scattered across a bed. All the cabinets were open.
A relative, Naji Hussein Kanoush, said: "We thought Bush had promised the Iraqi people friendship with the Americans. With these operations, hatred has grown in our hearts."
The area is known for enthusiastic support of Hussein's government, and officials in the nearby town of Balad said many inhabitants of Thuluya belonged to Hussein's multi-layered security agencies. One man, Ibrahim Ali Hussein, 60, told a visitor: "To tell the truth, I liked him. He made mistakes because he only depended on relatives."
McKiernan pinpointed Baqubah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, as another trouble spot. U.S. soldiers there said that patrols and convoys have suffered small-scale attacks almost nightly. "The nighttime belongs to the bad guys," said Capt. Kelly Uribe, whose 324th Military Police Battalion is working to train and go on patrol with Iraqi police.
Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade of the Army's 4th Infantry Division, camped at a dusty airfield near Baqubah, said patrols have run into increasingly elaborate ambushes. "They use flashlights or shots in the air to tip hostile elements of our approach," said Maj. Gary Brito. "Hardly a night goes by without something."
Units in Baqubah have rounded up dozens of suspected "subversives," Brito said, but "no big fish."
"It's a race against time," he said. "We are trying to keep the ball rolling until the Iraqis can take care of themselves, until the aid agencies can come in, until peacekeepers can take over. The hostile elements want to stop that progression."
Correspondent Anthony Shadid in Thuluya contributed to this report.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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