Copter Crash Kills 2 U.S. Pilots in Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 13 -- Insurgents apparently shot down a U.S. Army reconnaissance helicopter in this northern city Friday, killing its two pilots, in the second fatal helicopter crash in Iraq in less than a week.

A witness said he heard machine-gun fire before the OH-58 Kiowa helicopter crashed. Children told soldiers that the sound of gunfire came from three or four directions and that the helicopter, possibly trying to evade attack, was flying erratically.

The helicopter appeared to have crashed on a muddy plateau and then cartwheeled down a 25-foot embankment that was sloped at about a 45-degree angle. It came to rest near strewn garbage. The helicopter's two pilots, the only people aboard, were killed.

The pilots may have tried to land the chopper in the dirt clearing, about 20 feet from some mud huts with clothes hanging along lines.

Lt. Gen. John Vines, chief of the multinational corps in Iraq, , said from Baghdad's Camp Victory that there was evidence to suggest the helicopter was shot down. "The indicators are that it was due to hostile fire," he said.

The armed helicopter was on a combat air patrol just outside Forward Operating Base Courage when it went down in Mosul, 220 miles north of Baghdad, the military said.

Layth Shems Din said he was working in his butcher shop when he heard shots that he recognized from his service in the Iraqi army as heavy machine-gun fire.

"At the same time, there was a helicopter hovering at a low level, and after that I heard a strange sound from the helicopter, and then I heard the sound of a crash, but not an explosion," the 29-year-old said by telephone.

He and Ayad Abdul Razzaq, a 35-year-old manager of a tourist agency, said the crash occurred as the helicopters flew over Mosul's al-Sukar neighborhood. They said the aircraft went down near the al-Sayegh mosque.

Razzaq said that after hearing the "strange sound, smoke came from the helicopter before it fell."

Maj. Richard Greene, executive officer of the 172nd Stryker Brigade's 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, said the helicopter "was responding to small arms fire being taken by Iraqi police."

Greene said the gunmen were not found.

The helicopter crash came nearly a week after a Black Hawk helicopter carrying eight U.S. troops and four American civilians went down near the northern city of Tall Afar, killing all aboard. Pentagon officials said the cause of that crash was still being investigated, although bad weather was reported in the area at the time.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Friday, a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in Baqubah, killing two officers and wounding six people, said Ahmed Hassan of the morgue in the city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The U.S. military has predicted more violence for Iraq in the weeks ahead as the country's splintered politicians and religious groups struggle to form a government.