U.S. Copter Is Shot Down in Iraq

A U.S. Army helicopter was shot down Friday near the volatile Sunni Muslim town of Fallouja, leaving one American soldier dead and another injured.

A second U.S. soldier died when a military truck flipped over near the Baghdad airport, the Army reported. Six other soldiers were hurt in the truck crash, which military officials said was under investigation.

The downing of American helicopters -- due either to mechanical problems or hostile fire -- has contributed to a surge in U.S. fatalities in recent months. In the most lethal incident of the war, two Black Hawk helicopters collided over the northern city of Mosul in November after coming under fire, killing 17 soldiers.

U.S. troops sealed off the site of Friday’s crash, a dusty plantation near the Euphrates River, then swarmed over the area, carrying out house-to-house searches and blocking off streets as assault helicopters circled overhead.

Fallouja, a conservative, tribal-dominated community about 35 miles west of Baghdad, has been a focal point of the anti-American insurgency, which continues to simmer despite the Dec. 13 capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Witnesses said they saw a projectile strike the helicopter about 1 p.m. before the aircraft spiraled toward the ground.

“We saw a missile hit it, and we could see that the soldiers inside were trapped,” said Hussein Dari, a 25-year-old laborer in Fallouja. “It was burning, and smoke was coming from it.”

U.S. military officials said later that, based on reports from the field, they believed that ground fire had downed the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopter.

“They are fairly convinced that it was enemy fire,” Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad.

Kimmitt said that after the helicopter crash-landed, paratroopers guarding the site came upon assailants wearing black vests emblazoned with the word “Press.” He said four assailants were captured after a car chase.

Several local Iraqi journalists who approached the crash site said they too were picked up for questioning by the Americans.

Elsewhere in the restive area west of the capital, a U.S. military convoy came under small-arms fire near Ramadi, west of Fallouja. Witnesses said either a roadside bomb or rockets also were fired by the insurgents.

A 5,000-gallon oil tanker in the convoy was set ablaze, sending huge clouds of black smoke billowing skyward. Three U.S. soldiers were hurt in the attack, suffering burns and shrapnel wounds, according to the Army.

In response to hit-and-run guerrilla attacks, U.S. forces have been conducting methodical raids aimed at capturing the insurgency’s leaders, seizing weaponry and cutting the rebels’ cash lifeline.

American officials say that since Hussein’s capture, they have been making steady progress catching loyalists of the former regime. On Friday, they reported the arrest a day earlier of a man known as Abu Mohammed, who was believed to have served as a conduit for weapons and funds.

His interrogation led to several more arrests and the seizure of an arms cache, they said.

But American tactics have provoked angry reactions in some quarters. A near-riot broke out outside a Baghdad mosque Friday, the Muslim Sabbath, after an overnight raid by U.S. troops.

Kimmitt said American forces had seized weapons and ammunition, and made 32 arrests. He described the detainees as Arabs from outside Iraq. U.S. officials believe that foreign fighters play a significant role in the insurgency.

In Mosul, police reported the latest in what appeared to be a series of vigilante-style revenge killings of officials placed in positions of authority by Hussein. The family of Abdel Mustafa, a low-level Baathist official who was a dean at Mosul University, said he was abducted from his home Wednesday night and found dead the next day of gunshot wounds.

Violence also broke out in the northern oil center of Kirkuk, where ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs have been on the rise. Local police said one Kurd was killed and another wounded in a shooting attack Thursday night.