Helicopter crash kills US soldier among Iraqi violence
A US military helicopter crashed west of Baghdad today, killing one soldier, and gunmen shot dead a Kurd as ethnic tension gripped the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a dean at Mosul University was assassinated, apparently because he was a minor official in the Baath Party of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, and an oil tanker in a US convoy was set ablaze in an attack by anti-American insurgents.
The US military said one American soldier was killed and one was injured when an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior crashed on the outskirts of Fallujah, a flashpoint in the anti-American insurgency. Rebels in the area have previously shot at and brought down US helicopters.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, the military said.
A witness said he saw the helicopter go down and burst into flames.
Afterward, US soldiers swept through Fallujah, blocking off streets and searching shops and homes as helicopters circled above.
US helicopters have crashed or made emergency landings several times in recent months. In the deadliest single attack on US forces since the Iraq invasion began in March, 17 soldiers were killed when two Black Hawk helicopters collided in mid air above Mosul in what the military said was probably a grenade attack.
A US Black Hawk helicopter made an emergency landing near Qarayah, in northern Iraq, yesterday but the military said that was caused by a tail rotor problem. One person was slightly injured, they said.
In Kirkuk, Arab gunmen killed one Kurd and wounded another last night as they were walking in an Arab neighbourhood, Police Chief Gen Turhan Youssef said.
Afterwards, there was a shootout between Arabs and police, who killed two attackers and wounded several, said Jalal Jawher, local head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.
Turhan said a group of Arabs shot at both Kurds and police, but that he had no information about casualties among the attackers.
Tensions in Kirkuk have been high since an attack on Wednesday on Arab and Turkmen protesters demanding that Kirkuk remain under the administration of a central Iraqi government.
In the northern city of Mosul, the Saddam-appointed dean of political science of Mosul University was kidnapped and apparently assassinated.
Adel Jabar Abid Mustafa – also a minor Baath Party official – was taken from his home on Wednesday night and his body was found yesterday with two gunshots to his head, according to the dean’s brother, Salim Abid Mustafa.
He said he did not know why his brother was killed, and police had no comment. Gunmen in Mosul have killed at least three judges appointed by Saddam’s regime and officers in a new Iraqi police force formed by the US-led occupation.
Also today, a truck travelling toward Baghdad International Airport flipped on its side, killing a soldier and injuring six soldiers, the military said. Four of the injured returned to duty. The cause of the crash was under investigation.
An oil tanker in a US convoy erupted in flames and clouds of black smoke near a US military base on the road to the western town of Ramadi today. Witnesses claimed it was the victim of a rebel rocket or roadside bomb attack.
In ongoing raids to hunt down former Saddam officials, US soldiers captured Abu Mohammed, a key suspect believed to be moving foreign fighters and cash through a tense area west of Baghdad, the military said. Based on information gleaned from the arrest, the military detained another three suspects and some weapons.
US. Soldiers also arrested tribal leader Sheik Kahtan Yehia of the Albu Rahman tribe in Thursday night raids in Samarra, northwest of Baghdad, witnesses said.
Norwegian police, meanwhile, arrested the spiritual leader of Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic militant group based in northern Iraq that is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the United Nations.
Mullah Krekar was arrested today at his house in Oslo, his brother Khalid Faraj Ahmad, said, and his lawyer told the Norwegian news agency NTB that new charges had been filed against him.
