U.S. Black Hawk Goes Down Near Tikrit

25/10/2003| IslamWeb

A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down by ground fire near Tikrit, U.S. officials said. At least one person was injured. Two helicopters were flying overhead when the second one in the formation was hit by a projectile, believed to be a rocket propelled grenade, witnesses said. The striken copter circled, swayed then came down in a farming area while the other hovered overhead, they said. It was the second time a U.S. helicopter has been downed by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1. The last copter to be shot down was in June. "A helicopter did go down," Capt. Jefferson Wolfe, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said. "We can confirm it. It was a Black Hawk. We are investigating." Smoke could be seen rising from the site, and an injured person was seen being removed from the site on a stretcher. It was not known how many people were on the downed copter but the aircraft ordinarily carries three crewmen. One soldier, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he believed three people were on board. Tikrit lies in the region of central Iraq north of Baghdad that has seen multiple attacks every day against occupation forces. The region is where Saddam drew his strongest support, and his loyalists are now believed to be leading resistance to the U.S.-led occupation. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, on a three-day tour of Iraq, was in Tikrit earlier Saturday visiting the main U.S. garrison there. He left the city hours before the helicopter was shot down and was in the northern city of Kirkuk, U.S. officials said. **Police Chief Assassinated in Southern Iraq*** Meanwhile, the US-backed police chief of the major southern Iraqi city of Amarah was shot to death as he left a mosque after prayers, officials said Saturday. Brig. Hamid Hadi Hassan al-Abe was leaving the al-Hussein mosque after Friday prayers when he was gunned down by unidentified attackers firing from several directions, police Maj. Kathim Mohsen Hamadi said, according to The AP. The attackers escaped, Hamadi said. Several hundred men, many of them armed with rifles and pistols, turned out Saturday for the funeral service of al-Abe. Hamadi said al-Abe had a good relationship with British occupation authorities, who are responsible for this city some 110 kilometers north of Basra. Also, occupation authorities on Saturday announced plans to lift the curfew and reopen a major bridge in Baghdad to ease conditions for Iraqis ahead of Ramadan. The city council in Baghdad said the curfew would be lifted at 4 a.m. Sunday. In a separate statement, authorities said they would reopen the 14th of July Bridge later Saturday. "The curfew can be lifted due to the reduction in the crime rate in the city and the overall improvement in the security situation," the city council statement said. "Despite some highly publicized attacks by terrorists and supporters of the former regime, the overall security situation in Baghdad has improved." The statement urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspected criminal or "terrorist" activity to the Iraqi police or coalition authorities. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A U.S. Apache gunship flies over a burning Black Hawk helicopter, right, in Tikrit, 193 km north of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2003. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)