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Missile hits copter in iraq { November 3 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51540-2003Nov2.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51540-2003Nov2.html
Missile Hits U.S. Copter in Iraq; 16 Dead
20 Soldiers Hurt in Crash Near Fallujah
By Theola Labbé and Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, November 3, 2003; Page A01
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Nov. 2 -- A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter packed with soldiers headed for a short-term break was hit with a missile and crashed in a field west of Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing 16 soldiers and wounding 20 others in the deadliest single attack on American forces since they invaded Iraq, military officials and witnesses said.
The shoulder-fired missile streaked through a clear blue sky and struck the dual-rotor helicopter in its rear around 9 a.m. as it was ferrying soldiers from bases in western Iraq to Baghdad's international airport. The impact sparked an explosion and a fire in midair. Moments later, the witnesses said, the helicopter pitched upward, spun out of control and plummeted to the ground just southwest of Fallujah, a city 40 miles west of Baghdad where resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has been particularly intense.
The force of the impact destroyed the 10-ton Chinook, scattering twisted and charred bits of fuselage over a wide area. Everyone on board was killed or injured, many of them severely, military officials said. Several of the wounded suffered serious internal injuries and extensive burns, the officials added. One witness said he saw a soldier whose legs were on fire crawling away from the crash site with his hands.
"It was a tremendous explosion," said Arif Jassim Hadi, a 30-year-old farmer standing along a dirt road near the crash site, which smoldered for hours.
The missile strike provided an example of the increasing sophistication and lethality of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Resistance fighters who began their effort to evict American troops by indiscriminately firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades at supply convoys now are targeting well-fortified bases with mortars, firing volleys of rockets inside the seat of the U.S. occupation authority, concealing roadside bombs and launching antiaircraft missiles.
It was not immediately clear who fired the missile. U.S. officials have blamed three groups for the violence that is plaguing Iraq: loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein, homegrown Islamic extremists and terrorists who have infiltrated from neighboring countries. Some American military and intelligence officials say they believe the groups may be collaborating.
Although more than two dozen missiles have been fired at aircraft in Iraq since June, according to military reports, the Chinook was the first to have been hit. Two other helicopters have been shot down since President Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1 -- a UH-60 Black Hawk and an AH-64 Apache -- but neither involved antiaircraft missiles, officials said. Only one soldier was injured in those two incidents.
The successful attack could force the military to reevaluate its flight patterns and missile-defense measures. U.S. commanders have been increasing the use of helicopters in hostile areas, assuming they were safer than ground convoys. "This underscores that regardless of how you travel in this country, it's a dangerous place," said Capt. Jeff Fitzgibbons, a spokesman for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Less than a half-hour before the crash, two American civilians working as private contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were killed in Fallujah when their convoy hit a roadside bomb, a military spokesman said. The contractors were working on a project to destroy Iraqi munitions, which have been used in the manufacture of the roadside bombs.
Hours earlier, a soldier from the 1st Armored Division was killed in Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded as he was responding to another incident.
The Pentagon has so far identified only one of the soldiers killed in the missile attack. Staff Sgt. Paul A. Velazquez, 29, of California, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, based at Fort Sill, Okla.
"It's clearly a tragic day for America," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Washington on ABC's "This Week." "In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days. But they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated."
The helicopter crash is the second major setback for the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq in the past week. Last Monday, car bombs exploded outside three police stations and the local headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad, killing about three dozen people and wounding more than 200.
Sunday's fatalities brought to 138 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died in hostilities in Iraq in the past six months. Over the past seven days, resistance fighters have killed 27 soldiers, the highest one-week total since major combat ended.
The Chinook that was struck, packed with 33 passengers and three crew members, was flying next to another Chinook after picking up passengers at various base camps west of Baghdad. Both helicopters, piloted by the Army's 12th Aviation Brigade, were carrying soldiers from the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Carson, Colo., and the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. The soldiers were supposed to fly out of Iraq later Sunday for different destinations: four-day breaks in Qatar, two-week holidays in the United States or emergency family leave.
Military officials and witnesses said the missile that brought down the Chinook was a Russian-made SA-7, a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking device known as a Strela that appeared from witness accounts to have locked onto the helicopter's engines, which are below the rear rotor.
A U.S. military spokesman said the missile, which either failed to explode or did not detonate fully, did not shoot the plane out of the air but severely damaged the engine system. The crippled engine severely limited the pilot's ability to control the craft, and when the pilot tried to make an emergency crash landing, "the aircraft disintegrated on impact," the spokesman said.
U.S. officials have said thousands of antiaircraft missiles, most of them SA-7s, were looted from Iraqi army stockpiles and remain unaccounted for. "Nobody knows with certainty how many there are," the spokesman said.
The military initiated a buyback program for surface-to-air missiles in August, paying up to $500 apiece. Although hundreds of them have been acquired, military officials said thousands more are still in circulation.
U.S. military helicopters have flares and other counter-measures designed to deflect missiles. It was not clear whether they were used by the crew.
Witnesses said they saw two missiles fired at the Chinooks from a grove of date palms about 500 yards from where the helicopter crashed. "It hit the back of the helicopter," said Hadi, the farmer. "There was an explosion and fire, then it crashed. The smoke was everywhere."
When the missile struck, the second helicopter made a sharp right turn and threw up several flares, then circled before landing, apparently in an attempt to help rescue survivors and put out the fire, witnesses said.
Soon thereafter, several Black Hawks swooped in to pick up survivors while at least six other Black Hawks hovered over the area, a flat expanse of farms with corn and clover, bisected by dirt roads and canals fed by the Euphrates River. The region, just south of the Euphrates town of Fallujah, has emerged as a center of resentment over the U.S. occupation, and most residents gathered near the crash site celebrated the helicopter's downing as a victory. By noon, soldiers forced onlookers to evacuate the site.
"Why are the Americans here? They're just showing off their muscles," said Habib Ali, a 36-year-old truck driver. "Force creates force."
Others from the nearby village of Albu Ali Harat gathered around. "This is an expression of our opinion," he said, "of Muslims, of all people."
"This is my land, and they came as strangers," said 22-year-old Jassim Mohammed. "They should be afraid."
Nafia Fahed Hamoud, 32, a builder who lives near the crash site, praised the person who fired the missile as "an honest man who does not like to be occupied by foreigners."
At a news conference Saturday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, acknowledged that American forces were facing a "determined enemy." He predicted that in the months ahead, the U.S.-led occupation would face "more obstacles, more setbacks and more tragedies in the future."
But as in the past, Sanchez dismissed the importance of an increase in attacks carried out by resistance fighters. "The coalition has maintained its offensive focus in the face of what we regard as a strategically and operationally insignificant surge of attacks," he said.
Before Sunday's loss, the deadliest attacks during the military campaign in Iraq occurred March 23 around the southern city of Nasiriyah, where a total of 29 U.S. troops died, including 12 Marines killed in an ambush by Iraqi soldiers who appeared to be surrendering, and 11 Army soldiers killed in an ambush after they were separated from their convoy. Six other Marines also died in fighting near Nasiriyah that day.
Iraq's six neighbors convened security talks in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Sunday in response to American allegations that countries bordering Iraq, particularly Iran and Syria, are not doing enough to clamp down on the flow of militants into Iraq. In a statement, the countries condemned terrorist attacks on "civilians, humanitarian and religious institutions, embassies and international organizations" and promised to cooperate with Iraqi authorities to "prevent any violation of borders." Iraq's interim foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, turned down a belated invitation to attend the talks.
Chandrasekaran reported from Baghdad. Correspondent Anthony Shadid and staff writer Vernon Loeb in Fallujah contributed to this report.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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