It was not known whether the Black Hawk helicopter went down due to
mechanical failure of hostile fire.
The aircraft went down about 9:40 a.m. on a riverbank along the Tigris
River about a half mile from the U.S. base in Saddam Hussein (news
- web
sites)'s former palace. The military said it did not know how many
people were aboard.
White smoke was seen rising from the wreckage and three other choppers
were hovering overhead.
"We don't know if it was a mechanical failure or hostile fire," Maj.
Jossyln Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said.
On Sunday, a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah,
killing 16 people and injuring 26.
On Oct, 25, a Black Hawk was shot down near Tikrit and one crew member
was injured.
Also Friday, a U.S. convoy was ambushed with rocket-propelled grenades
and small-arms fire, wounding at least five soldiers in the northern city
of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad.
After the clash, troops blocked off the section of town where the
fighting had occurred. Witnesses said that two vehicles were left burning
and that others were damaged.
A downtown hotel used as a military barracks in Mosul, Iraq (news
- web
sites)'s third-largest city that until recently was considered safe
from guerrilla strikes, was attacked late Thursday with rocket-propelled
grenades, but no damage or casualties occurred, the military said.
In al-Assad, a windblown desert base 150 miles northwest of Baghdad,
hundreds of soldiers, some wearing ceremonial spurs and black regimental
hats, on Thursday remembered the comrades killed last weekend when their
helicopter was shot down in the deadliest single attack against U.S.
forces since the Iraq war began March 20.
The Polish major was wounded when insurgents attacked a convoy of 16
Polish soldiers returning from a promotion ceremony for Iraqi civilian
defense trainees near Baghdad. Maj. Hieronim Kupczyk, 44, died at a
military hospital in Karbala, the Polish Defense Ministry said.
None of the other Polish soldiers was killed or wounded, according to
Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski.
"This tragic event proves that the situation in Iraq is getting
complicated," Szmajdzinski told reporters in Warsaw. "The level of
professionalism of the terrorists is increasing."
Elsewhere, one U.S. soldier from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment was
killed Thursday when his truck hit a land mine near the Husaybah border
crossing point with Syria nearly 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, the
military said.
A paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division was killed and two others
were wounded when their patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade and
small arms fire near Mahmudiyah, 15 miles south of Baghdad late Wednesday,
the military said.
In Washington on Thursday, Bush signed an $87.5 billion package
approved by Congress for Iraq and Afghanistan (news
- web
sites), calling the money a financial commitment by the United States
to the global war to defeat terrorism.
"With this act of Congress, no enemy or friend can doubt that America
has the resources and the will to see this war through to victory," Bush
said at a White House ceremony.
At al-Assad, U.S. troops honored their colleagues killed Sunday when
insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter. Most of the soldiers were
headed to home leave in the United States and elsewhere. Another of the
wounded soldiers died in a hospital in Germany Thursday, bringing the
Chinook death toll to 16.
The official count of the wounded had been 21 before the latest death.
However, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement later Thursday
that 26 soldiers were recovering from their wounds. The statement did not
elaborate.
The helicopter was shot down near Fallujah, one of the centers of Iraqi
resistance about 40 miles west of Baghdad. On Wednesday, the 82nd Airborne
Division said it captured two Iraqi army officers � Lt. Gen. Khamis Saleh
Ibrahim Al-Halbossi and Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Adwan Al-Alwani � who were
believed to have played a major role in attacks in the Fallujah area.
The deaths Thursday brought to 141 the number of U.S. soldiers killed
in Iraq by hostile fire since President Bush (news
- web
sites) declared an end to major combat May 1. A total of 114 U.S.
soldiers were killed in action before Bush's declaration.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon (news
- web
sites) announced plans to send 85,000 relief troops to Iraq early next
year, part of a rotation plan that assumes Iraqis be able to assume more
control and American troops in Iraq can be reduced from 131,600 today to
105,000 by May, senior officials said.
Concern over security mounted after a series of attacks around the
start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began here Oct. 27.
Since then, insurgents have rocketed the Al-Rasheed Hotel, set off deadly
car bombs in Baghdad, fired mortars at the coalition headquarters compound
in Baghdad and shot down the Chinook.
The number of daily attacks on coalition forces dropped to 29 last week
from a spike of 37 the week before, a U.S. military spokesman said
Thursday.
However, the chief British representative here, Jeremy Greenstock, said
coalition forces face a "rough winter" of attacks, The Times of London
newspaper reported in Wednesday's edition.
Greenstock also said it would be difficult to defeat the insurgents
without the sort of heavy-handed measures that would further alienate the
Iraqi people, the newspaper said.
The Polish major was the first Polish soldier killed by hostile fire in
more than a half century of post-World War II peacekeeping missions,
including the Golan Heights, Lebanon, Haiti and the Balkans. More than
500,000 Polish soldiers died during World War II, and 20,000 more were
killed in fighting along the eastern border that continued until 1947.
The United States, Britain and now Poland are the only coalition
members to have suffered combat deaths in Iraq. One Dane was killed by
friendly fire.
Poland has 2,400 soldiers in Iraq and are in charge of a large swath of
south-central Iraq where about 9,500 soldiers of several nations help
maintain security. Poland was among the strongest supporters of the
U.S.-led war to remove Saddam Hussein, and 250 Polish special forces
soldiers fought in the conflict.
The killing of the Polish major took place a few days before the
planned visit of Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who is due here as
part of a Middle East tour.
Despite the growing risk to coalition forces, a senior Japanese
official said in Baghdad that his country would honor its commitment to
send peacekeepers to Iraq.
The Japanese plan to send a 150-member advance contingent to southern
Iraq by the end of the year and 550 soldiers early next year to provide
water, medical care and other services.
___
Associated Press writers Hamza Hendawi in al-Assad, Monika Scislowska
in Warsaw, Jim Gomez in Tikrit and Mariam Fam in Mosul contributed to this
report.
