Attack on US helicopter in Iraq kills at least 15

7.30am UPDATE

BAISA - Guerrillas shot down an American helicopter in Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 15 United States soldiers and wounding 21 in the deadliest single strike on US-led forces since they invaded Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.

The crippled Chinook helicopter came down in farmland at 9am (7pm NZT) near the village of Baisa, south of Falluja, a fiercely anti-US town 50km west of the capital.

US helicopters circled above the smoking wreckage. Other helicopters and US Humvee vehicles were parked nearby.

US Army spokesman Colonel William Darley told reporters the cause of the crash was under investigation. Other US officials and witnesses said the helicopter, carrying troops on a rest and recreation break, had been shot down.

Some Iraqis were jubilant. "The Americans are pigs. We will hold a celebration because this helicopter went down -- a big celebration," said wheat farmer Saadoun Jaralla near the crash site. "The Americans are enemies of mankind."

It was the third time guerrillas had brought down a US helicopter since US President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq on May 1. The Americans invaded in March.

"Clearly it is a tragic day for Americans," US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told ABC television. "In a long hard war we are going to have tragic days."

But he said the United States would not be deterred and would win the war in Iraq.

Bush vowed on Saturday to stand firm and said leaving Iraq prematurely would strengthen the "terrorists" he blamed for recent suicide bombings.

A US spokesman said two Chinooks had been heading for Baghdad airport when one was "shot down by an unknown weapon".

A witness, Dawoud Suleiman, said: "There were two American helicopters. They fired a missile at one and missed, and then they hit the other, which crashed and caught fire."

Before the helicopter attack, 123 US soldiers had died in hostilities in Iraq in the past six months, including one killed by an overnight roadside bomb blast in Baghdad and two killed by a bomb in the northern city of Mosul the day before.

Fighters have killed 27 US soldiers in an eight-day surge in violence that began with last Sunday's rocketing of a Baghdad hotel hosting US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

The next day four suicide attacks killed 35 people at the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and three police stations in the capital.

The attacks prompted the United Nations, the ICRC and other aid agencies to pull more foreign staff from Baghdad and review their operations, in a fresh blow to reconstruction efforts.

The US military commander in Iraq, Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, said on Saturday his forces remained on the offensive in the face of "what we regard as a strategically and operationally insignificant surge of attacks".

In Falluja, residents said a roadside bomb had hit a convoy of US personnel in civilian vehicles. At least one vehicle was ablaze at the scene, where gloating crowds shouted anti-US slogans. Television pictures showed a gleeful youth wearing a US Army helmet. Others danced on wreckage.

In Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, residents said a roadside bomb had exploded as a US convoy passed, hitting a bus carrying university students and wounding two women.

Tension also ran high in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, where US troops sealed off a food market.

Witnesses said American soldiers had fired on a crowd after a hand grenade was thrown at them. US helicopters circled as armoured personnel carriers blocked roads.

One man said he had pulled his five-year-old daughter out of a car just before an American tank crushed it. "She just made it. Why are the Americans doing this?" asked Ali Saleh.

Iraq's six neighbours plus Egypt held security talks in Damascus, mindful of US assertions that Syria and Iran were not doing enough to prevent militants crossing into Iraq.

In a statement, they condemned "terrorist" attacks on "civilians, humanitarian and religious institutions, embassies and international organisations" and vowed to co-operate with Iraqi authorities to "prevent any violation of borders".

Iraq's interim foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, had turned down a belated invitation to attend. Officials at his ministry said Syria had been loath to ask him because of misgivings about being seen to recognise Iraq's US-backed interim government.

US troops and Iraqi police had tightened security in Baghdad and elsewhere at the weekend in response to rumours that guerrillas planned more bombings, though many fearful parents kept their children out of schools for a second day.

Meanwhile, Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer took steps to speed up creation of an Iraqi tribunal to try thousands of detained Saddam loyalists for crimes against humanity and human rights abuses, a senior official said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq