US helicopter shot down in Iraq, two pilots killed

MOSUL - Insurgents shot down a US military helicopter near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, killing its two pilots, witnesses and US officials said.

Witnesses reported seeing gunmen armed with heavy machineguns open fire on the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, a two-seat, single-engine helicopter, in al-Sukar district north of Mosul, about 390km north of Baghdad.

"The indicators are that it was due to hostile fire," army Lieutenant-General John Vines, the No. 2 US commander in Iraq, confirmed to reporters at the Pentagon from Baghdad.

A Reuters cameraman in al-Sukar said US forces swiftly sealed off the area after the crash. The helicopter was completely destroyed and wreckage was strewn about.

The US military said the aircraft had been conducting patrolling with another OH-58D when it crashed.

"Two pilots were killed when their Oh-58D Kiowa helicopter went down in the city of Mosul... The aircrew members were recovered from the aircraft," a statement said.

It was the second US helicopter to crash in Iraq in less than a week. A military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed last weekend, killing all 12 aboard in one of the worst incidents of its kind since the war began in 2003.

The US military believes the Black Hawk may have been brought down by bad weather, but the cause is still under investigation.

Dozens of soldiers have been killed in helicopter crashes since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, some in accidents and some after being fired on by insurgents with shoulder-fired missiles or small arms.

Faced with dangerous roads and vast tracts of desert, the military uses helicopters as its main means of transport, carrying troops and supplies between bases dotted around the country.

- REUTERS