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18 Americans from Afghan Chopper Crash Recovered •
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Guerrillas Kill 15 Iraqi Soldiers South of Baghdad
Reuters
Saturday 09 April 2005
Baghdad - Guerrillas killed 15 Iraqi soldiers south of Baghdad, Iraqi
police said on Saturday.
The attack occurred on Friday when the soldiers were traveling in a truck near
the town of Latifiya, about 30 miles from the Iraqi capital, the police said.
The Islamic Army in Iraq militant group claimed responsibility in an Internet
statement for the attack, saying it had killed 16 soldiers.
"An Army battalion on April 9 killed 16 members of the apostate (Iraqi National)
Guard in Latifiya who had been disguised in civilian clothes," said the statement,
whose authenticity could not be immediately verified.
Insurgents have increasingly targeted Iraqi security forces in the past few
months as Iraqi police and soldiers have taken over more responsibility for
national security from U.S.-led foreign troops.
Last month, more than 250 Iraqi police and soldiers were killed by militants,
while attacks against U.S.-led forces have fallen by more than 20 percent over
the past two months, according to the U.S. military.
Latifiya is in an area widely dubbed the "Triangle of Death" because of the
frequency of guerrilla attacks. Several foreigners have been taken hostage on
the main road running through the area, near the Euphrates river.
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18 Americans from Afghan Chopper Crash Recovered
Agence France-Presse
Saturday 09 April 2005
The bodies of 18 Americans killed in the worst helicopter crash in the US-led
operation in Afghanistan have been recovered and will be repatriated for identification,
the US military said.
Three of those killed in Wednesday's crash were civilians while the remaining
were US service members, said Lieutenant Cindy Moore, spokeswoman for the 18,000-strong
US-led coalition here.
The Chinook helicopter crashed in bad weather in Ghazni province, around 100
kilometres (62 miles) south of the capital Kabul.
The remains of the 18 dead have been removed from the wreckage and taken to
the Bagram air base near Kabul from where they would be flown to the Dover Air
Force Base in Delaware for identification, the US military said in a statement.
A US team was due in Afghanistan on Saturday to investigate the cause of the
crash.
Members of the hardline Islamic Taliban, waging an insurgency in the war-torn
country since the US-led coalition removed them from power in late 2001, have
said they shot the helicopter down.
But the US military has said there was no indication it was brought down by
hostile fire.
Chinooks are a mainstay of the US-led coalition force in rugged Afghanistan,
where they are used for transport duties. They have also been employed for relief
work during recent spring floods.
Moore said the helicopter was one of two Chinooks returning from a patrol in
southern Afghanistan. The second helicopter returned safely to Bagram, the main
US air base just north of Kabul.
Around 18,000 US-led coalition troops are hunting down remnants of the Taliban
regime and their Al-Qaeda allies in Afghanistan. They are also helping with
anti-drug operations.
The crash was the worst since the US military toppled the Taliban in 2001 after
the fundamentalist regime refused to surrender the Osama Bin Laden, the architect
of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
US forces flying missions above Afghanistan's difficult, mountainous terrain
have suffered eight helicopter crashes since the end of 2001, Moore said.
The seven crashes before the one on Wednesday claimed 21 lives, she said. The
last victim was the pilot of a Black Hawk helicopter which came down near the
western city of Herat in October.
Six people -- three US military personnel and three American civilians -- were
killed last November when their rented civilian transport plane crashed in central
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