Pall of Disbelief at Service for 26 Copter Victims : Turkey: U.S. pilots’ mistaken shoot-down of two helicopters over Iraq draws anger, sorrow at memorial on air base.

The home air base for U.S. planes flying over northern Iraq held a memorial service Sunday for the 26 people killed Thursday when U.S. jets mistakenly destroyed two U.S. helicopters over Iraq.

Turks here expressed a mix of anger and sorrow over the deaths of three Turkish officers and American, British, French and Iraqi Kurdish passengers. The service at Incirlik Air Base was closed to journalists. Civilians there said by telephone that the accident had cast a pall of disbelief over the community of 5,000 Americans.

“There’s a great deal of sadness,” said Don Torrey, principal of the base’s high school. “This morning the chaplain gave a very sorrowful prayer for the victims, for the people at the base, for the people who were part of it and for the investigating team.”

“People are at a loss as to how it could possibly happen,” said Mary Davis, director of the elementary school. “Didn’t (the Blackhawk helicopters) have U.S. markings? It’s just absolutely mind-boggling that it could happen.”

Among Turks in the neighboring city of Adana, “everyone is sad and mad,” said a man who would identify himself only as Yildren. “Americans have such high technology, it’s hard to believe that you can make that kind of mistake.”

The widow of the senior Turkish officer killed Thursday, Col. Hikmet Alp, told the Turkish daily Hurriyet that she would sue the United States if the American pilots were found to have erred in the incident, the Associated Press reported.

This is the second time in two years that Turkish soldiers have died from a U.S. military blunder. In October, 1992, the U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga mistakenly fired two missiles into a Turkish destroyer, killing five and nearly sinking the ship. Some Turks later expressed resentment when the U.S. Navy did not court-martial those held responsible.