Wreck Is Deadliest For U.S. in a Year; 5 Marines Also Die
By Nelson Hernandez and Bassam Sebti
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 9, 2006
BAGHDAD, Jan. 8 -- An Army helicopter crashed in bad weather in northern Iraq shortly before midnight Saturday, killing all 12 Americans aboard, military authorities reported Sunday, and five Marines were killed in action in separate incidents over the past two days.
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was flying between bases with another helicopter when communications were lost, the military said in a statement. A search mission located the wreckage at noon Sunday in a sparsely populated area about seven miles east of the city of Tall Afar, near the Syrian border.
Army Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, the spokesman for the 101st Airborne, said there were eight U.S. service members and four civilians aboard the helicopter.
The crash was the deadliest for the military since January 2005, when 31 troops were killed when a transport helicopter went down, also near the Syrian border.
Capt. Bill Roberts, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said that the cause of the helicopter crash Saturday was under investigation but emphasized that the craft went down during a night mission while encountering severe weather. Roberts said there were thunderstorms and high winds in the desert near Tall Afar at the time of the crash.
Bad weather and sandstorms have played roles in previous U.S. helicopter crashes in Iraq, including the January 2005 accident. Swirling sand can disorient helicopter pilots, especially when they are operating in the dark and using night-vision goggles. Military experts have said such storms can lead crews to momentarily lose their ability to distinguish up from down.
The military said the helicopter that crashed Saturday had been flying in support of Task Force Band of Brothers, a unit that is largely made up of troops from the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky. Maj. Tom Bryant, a spokesman for the division's 3rd Brigade, said the helicopter was not from Fort Campbell but could not say to which unit it belonged or whether any soldiers from the Band of Brothers task force were aboard, the Associated Press reported.
The task force's area of operations is northern Iraq, where Tall Afar has been a major focus of U.S. military operations in recent months. American military commanders see it as one of the main bases of communication and support for the insurgency, dominated by Sunni Arabs.
"Our prayers are with the families of the aircraft crew and passengers," spokesman Loomis said in an e-mail.
The five Marines were killed in several attacks in central Iraq, the military reported. Three of them were killed by gunfire Sunday morning in separate attacks in the city of Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, the military reported. The two others were killed when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs Saturday in the towns of Karmah and Ferris, both of which are near Fallujah, the military reported.
Military authorities would not release the names of any of the 17 Americans killed, or provide more details on the circumstances of their deaths, until their relatives could be notified.
In Baghdad, efforts to form a national government continued following parliamentary elections held Dec. 15. In the latest move, a coalition of Kurdish parties announced Sunday that it would nominate Jalal Talabani, the country's president, to a new term.
It was unclear whether Talabani would accept the nomination; he has lobbied to be given more authority. The presidency is a largely ceremonial office.
"The acceptance or the rejection of the president to this post is up to him personally," Kamran Qaradaghi, Talabani's spokesman, said in a statement. "President Talabani has stressed many times that he must get more powers to accept this post."
Sunni Arab and Shiite parties greeted the nomination coolly. Bahaa Araji, a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, a group of Shiite parties, said his group respected the decision but would prefer to have a Sunni Arab in the job.
Also in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a predawn raid Sunday on the Um al-Qura mosque, which serves as the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading Sunni religious group. A U.S. military spokesman quoted by Reuters said the raid was undertaken to investigate "substantial terrorist-related activity."
The association said the raid was a violation of a holy place. Muthana Harith Dhari, a member of the association, said at a news conference Sunday morning that U.S. troops had detained five people and ransacked the mosque's library and computer stations looking for information.
"We call it a battle, to describe the kind of attack against the mosque and the headquarters of the association," Dhari said.
While the association has regularly inveighed against the U.S. presence in Iraq, it has also often issued statements condemning suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings carried out by insurgents across the country.
Also in Baghdad, a French engineer taken hostage last month was released. In a statement, the French government said Bernard Planche would return to France soon. A government spokesman said French President Jacques Chirac was "delighted by the happy outcome."
Planche, who worked for a nongovernmental organization, was kidnapped Dec. 5 while traveling to work at a water plant in Baghdad. Video footage released later showed him sitting between two armed men, who denounced the "illegal French presence" in Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the country.
The French government, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, has not sent forces to Iraq.
Staff writer Josh White in Washington and correspondent John Ward Anderson in Paris contributed to this report.
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