BAGHDAD, 8 November 2003 — Six US soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter was brought down by Iraqi insurgents over the flashpoint town of Tikrit yesterday. This was the third US helicopter shot down in two weeks.
The dead included the Black Hawk’s four-member crew and two soldiers from Department of the Army headquarters.
“I was standing in front of my uncle’s house near the (Tigris River) bank when I saw two helicopters in the air. I started watching them because I remembered how two weeks ago in this area, a helicopter was shot down,” said Saqr Ghani, 19.
“I saw one of the helicopters shot from the side and I saw smoke and a ball of fire. I felt happy and started shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. I then ran to the car and immediately headed to the river bank where I saw the helicopter cut in two pieces.”
US military was considering reimposing a night-time curfew around Tikrit as a result of the incident. The curfew had been lifted for Ramadan. Last Sunday, guerrillas shot down a US Chinook helicopter west of Baghdad as it carried troops on a rest and recreation break, killing 16 American soldiers in the deadliest single strike on US-led forces since they invaded to oust Saddam.
The US military said two US soldiers had also been killed in the northern city of Mosul, one in a bomb attack on Thursday morning and one in an ambush yesterday.
US policy, meanwhile, suffered another setback as Turkey decided not to send troops to Iraq because of strong opposition from Iraqi politicians.
Ankara conveyed its decision to Washington in a telephone conversation between Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and US Secretary of State Colin Powell late on Thursday.
“The two ministers reviewed the issue of Turkey contributing units to Iraq in light with the circumstances prevailing currently in Iraq,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Dirioz said.
A senior government official said the statement meant that Turkey had abandoned plans to deploy soldiers in Iraq.
