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Helicopter shot down killing nine Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-04-21T120645Z_01_CAS143438_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-THURS.xmlhttp://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-04-21T120645Z_01_CAS143438_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-THURS.xml
Nine killed after helicopter shot down in Iraq
Thu Apr 21, 2005 1:06 PM BST
By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Russian-built commercial helicopter was shot down north of Baghdad on Thursday and all nine people aboard were believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said.
The attack, believed to be the first downing of a civilian aircraft in Iraq, comes amid a surge in guerrilla violence and puts further pressure on leaders struggling to form a government nearly three months after elections.
The Mi-8 helicopter, which has both commercial and military use, was flying near the town of Tarmiya, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, when it was hit by ground fire, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade, the military sources said.
They said three crew and six passengers, all civilians, were on board at the time. Their nationalities were not known, although it was believed that the crew may have been Bulgarian.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry in Sofia said it had no information on any incident. The twin-engined Mi-8 has been in operation for more than 30 years and can carry up to 24 passengers.
Television footage received by Reuters showed mangled and burning wreckage, including rotor blades, in a deserted area.
At least two charred bodies could be seen near the site. The bulk of the aircraft was burnt almost beyond recognition, although what appeared to be two engines were also visible.
Insurgents frequently fire on U.S. aircraft in Iraq and have brought down several helicopters in the past. A U.S. Chinook transporter was shot down west of Baghdad in November 2003, killing at least 16 U.S. troops and wounding more than 20.
Ten British troops died on January 30 when a C-130 Hercules transport plane came down north of Baghdad. The cause remains unclear but officials have said it may have been shot down.
POLITICAL DISPUTE
The attack comes amid a surge in guerrilla activity over the past two weeks, with more than 20 car bombings in Baghdad and an increase in ambushes, shootings and assassinations.
The violence threatens to eclipse efforts by elected leaders to form a government, amid growing tensions between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and once-dominant Sunni Muslim communities.
Hopes that a government would be announced on Thursday were scotched late on Wednesday when last-minute disagreements emerged between Shi'ite Muslims, who won the January 30 election, and other factions, including interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Hussain al-Shahristani, a senior member of the main Shi'ite alliance, said they did not think a deal would be sealed on Thursday, as previously hoped.
"I think the government will not be announced today ... We want to see the Sunni Arabs represented as well ... Negotiations also continue over the allocation of some posts," Talabani told Turkey's CNN Turk television in an interview.
Disputes surfaced when Allawi rejected an offer to join the cabinet, sources involved in the negotiations said.
"The talks were going well, but the Shi'ites offered Allawi just two ministries, not the four that he wants, and he rejected the offer," one source said, referring to ministries offered to Allawi's political grouping.
"There was also continued disagreement over what ministries the Sunnis should get. The question really is whether the Shi'ites want to create a government of national unity, or just a Shi'ite-Kurd government," he said.
SHI'ITE-SUNNI TENSION
The constant delays in forming a government have heightened tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis at the leadership level, and also appear to have fuelled the insurgency.
Shortly after the talks, Allawi narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Al Qaeda in Iraq, a militant group led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attempt in a statement on the Internet. The group has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks over the last month.
Immediately after January's election militant activity appeared to taper, with the country buoyed by the fact that more than 8 million people had turned out to vote. But in recent weeks, there has been a marked resurgence in violence.
On Thursday, a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying foreign security contractors on the road to Baghdad's airport, killing two people. Three foreign contractors were killed on the same stretch of road on Wednesday, and two U.S. soldiers were killed in the same vicinity the day before.
The inability to secure the airport road, an essential link for military and civilian supplies, has come to symbolise the difficulty U.S. forces have in taking on the insurgency.
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