International   

Resistance spreading beyond central Iraq

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA NOV. 7 . In less than a week after Iraqi resistance forces brought down a U.S. helicopter, a second American chopper has crashed this morning near Tikrit, hometown of the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, killing six American soldiers, amid signs that the struggle against the U.S. occupation was spreading beyond central Iraq.

While confirming the fatalities, the U.S. Army command was non-committal on whether Iraqi fighters had shot down the Black Hawk helicopter that crashed today.

Grenade attack?

But the U.S. troops in Tikrit said that there were early indications that a rocket-propelled grenade had hit the helicopter. Soldiers at a nearby military base reportedly saw a column of smoke rising from the site of the crash, which was preceded by the sound of two explosions.

American Apache helicopters were scanning the area to seek the possible perpetrators of the attack.

Sixteen American troops — with one of the critically wounded succumbing to his injuries in hospital — were killed when Iraqi resistance forces downed a U.S. Chinook helicopter on Sunday.

Iraqi fighters on October 25 had brought down another Black Hawk helicopter in Tikrit, using a rocket propelled grenade, but all the U.S. crew members had then managed to escape, before the chopper burst into flames after making an emergency landing.

Meanwhile, one soldier was killed and six others were wounded after Iraqi fighters on Friday ambushed a U.S. convoy in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

This was the second major attack in three days against U.S. forces in Mosul, which has a mixed population of ethnic Kurds, Sunnis and Turkomans.

A rocket-propelled grenade on Wednesday had targeted a U.S. military convoy in Mosul, wounding one soldier and killing two Iraqis.

Besides, a roadside bomb injured two American soldiers, in a separate incident on the same day.

The attack in Mosul and the helicopter crash has brought to 146, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since May 1, when the U.S. officially declared that major combat was over.

Polish Major killed

In escalating guerilla attacks, a Polish Army Major was killed near the Shia dominated city of Karbala on Thursday, making it the first fatality that the Polish military contingent supporting the Anglo-American occupation had suffered in Iraq. A bomb explosion earlier this week rocked Karbala, which is also fast emerging as another hub of Iraqi resistance, reportedly killing three people and injuring another 12.

Last month, the militia loyal to the young Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr clashed with U.S. troops, resulting in the death of three American soldiers in the gun-battle. Sustaining the pressure on the U.S. occupation forces in Baghdad,

Iraqi resistance forces on Friday fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. tank and a civilian vehicle, wounding one soldier and an Iraqi boy, eyewitnesses said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• West must share blame for `freedom deficit' in W. Asia: Bush
• Resistance spreading beyond central Iraq
• Pak. Minister to invite PM for SAARC Summit
• There was no emergency, says President's office
• Russia expands North-South trade route

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu