Eighteen die in second deadliest day for US in Iraq

11.45am

BAISA - Eighteen Americans died in guerrilla attacks in Iraq on Sunday, including 15 soldiers killed when a helicopter was downed in the deadliest single strike on US forces since they invaded to oust Saddam Hussein.

It was the second deadliest day overall for Americans in Iraq since the invasion on March 20, after 28 soldiers were killed in various attacks on March 23.

On Sunday, one US soldier was killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad and two American civilian contractors died in a roadside mine blast in Fallujah, a fiercely anti-US city 50km west of the capital.

The crippled Chinook helicopter carrying troops on their way for a rest break came down in farmland at 9am (7pm NZT) near the village of Baisa, south of Falluja. Another 21 soldiers aboard the Chinook were injured.

US military officials and witnesses said the large transport helicopter was shot down. Other helicopters circled above the smoking wreckage and American troops rushed to secure the crash site.

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.

Rumsfeld said on Sunday: "I think the American people have a good centre of gravity. I think they get it. They would rather have us fighting terrorists outside the United States of America than inside."

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."

Some US officials questioned why the helicopters had been flying through such a dangerous area.

The US-led administration has long feared that a shoulder-fired missile could bring down an aircraft approaching Baghdad airport, and officials say this is one reason for the delay in opening the airport to civilian traffic.

Earlier this year, US troops based west of Baghdad offered a US$500 ($828) bounty for every shoulder-fired missile handed in.

The helicopter attack brought to 138 the number of US soldiers who have died in hostilities in Iraq in the past six months.

Guerrillas have killed 27 US soldiers in an eight-day surge in violence that began with last Sunday's rocketing of a Baghdad hotel hosting deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

The next day 35 people died in four suicide attacks 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. The two Americans who died were members of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

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.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq