US fears Iraqi insurgents have better missiles as helicopter is downed
By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 08 February 2007

Fears that Iraqi insurgents may be using either improved missiles or better tactics mounted after the fifth helicopter in just over two weeks was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile north-west of Baghdad.

The US Sea Knight was hit yesterday killing all seven people on board, according to an Iraqi air force official.

"The helicopter was flying and passed over us, then we heard the firing of a missile," said Mohammed al-Janabi, a farmer who was speaking less than half a mile from the wreckage of the twin-rotor C-46 troop carrier. "The helicopter then turned into a ball of fire. It flew in a circle twice, then it went down."

Flames and a huge plume of black smoke rose from the crash site not far from a farm house. Helicopters buzzed overhead and US troops rushed to prevent anybody else reaching the wreckage, 20 miles north-west of the capital near the town of Taji in an area where the Sunni insurgents have always been strong. The US forces in Iraq depend heavily on helicopters because patrols are frequently attacked by bombs in or beside the roads.

A claim of responsibility was made by the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of insurgents including al-Qa'ida in Iraq, who have said they shot down two other helicopters recently. The statement said the group would post a video of the shooting down of the helicopter on the internet later.

A US official said an investigation was under way and the crash appeared to be related to mechanical problems. In the past the US forces have preferred to attribute aircraft losses, at least at first, to accidents.

US military losses in Iraq have been rising in recent weeks though the overall level of deaths has been remarkably steady, according to the Department of Defence. In 2004, 848 US soldiers were killed and 8,002 wounded; in 2005, 846 killed and 5,946 wounded; in 2006, 821 killed and 6,372 wounded. Almost all US casualties have been suffered in fighting the Sunni insurgents. President George Bush's belligerent rhetoric in his State of the Union address, suggesting he was going to take on the Shia militias as well, could lead to a sharp rise in US losses.

But Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist Shia cleric whom the Mehdi Army follows, is determined to avoid a military confrontation with US forces implementing a new security plan to regain control of Baghdad. Sadrist officials say they would allow the US army into their bastion of Sadr City, home to two million people, but this probably means the militiamen would just go underground. The much-publicised "surge" in the numbers of US and Iraqi troops in Baghdad is proving very slow to develop. The Iraq Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki said: "I believe we've been very late and this delay has started to give a negative image." It is not clear that the US and the Iraqi government will have enough troops to search even a few neighbourhoods in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the sense of anarchy in Baghdad has been increased by the government's admission that one of its own security agencies kidnapped Jalal Sharafi, an Iranian diplomat. Iran has accused the Ministry of Defence - heavily influenced by the US - of orchestrating the kidnapping using a commando unit. Four of the alleged kidnappers were arrested at the time.

The new US policy of detaining Iranians is humiliating for the Iraqi government. When US forces raided a long-established Iranian office in the Kurdish capital of Arbil in January, Kurdish officials say the first they knew about it was when eight US helicopters from the US base at Balad suddenly flew over the city.

* An Italian judge has ordered a US soldier to stand trial for the fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Baghdad. Mario Lozano has been indicted for murder and attempted murder in the death of Nicola Calipari, who was shot on 4 March 2005, on his way to the Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital, said the prosecutor, Pietro Saviotti.