|  
  US copter down in Iraq; 12 feared dead   (AP)  Updated: 2006-01-09 06:55  
 A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter went down in northern Iraq, killing all 12 
Americans believed to be aboard in the deadliest crash in nearly a year, while 
five U.S. Marines died in weekend attacks, the military said Sunday.  
 
 
 
   A file photo of U.S. Army Black Hawk 
 helicopter. [AP] |   The latest deaths followed an 
especially bloody week in which about 200 Iraqis and a dozen U.S. troops were 
killed. Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, claimed headway in forming a stable 
coalition government following the Dec. 15 elections, whose final results may be 
released this week. 
U.S. military officials said the UH-60 Black Hawk crashed just before 
midnight Saturday about seven miles east of Tal Afar, a northern city near the 
Syrian border that has seen heavy fighting with insurgents. 
 "All (those killed) are believed to be U.S. citizens," military spokesman Lt. 
Col. Barry Johnson said. 
 He did not say what caused the crash, but bad weather has wracked most of 
Iraq. 
 The Black Hawk was part of a two-helicopter team providing support for the 
101st Airborne Division and was flying between bases when communications were 
lost, the military said. After a search, the helicopter was found about noon 
Sunday, the military said. 
 The helicopter was part of Task Force Band of Brothers and attached to the 
101st Aviation Brigade, but Maj. Tom Bryant, spokesman for the division's 3rd 
Brigade, said the helicopter was not from Fort Campbell, Ky., and belonged to 
another unit. 
 Bryant could not say what unit the helicopter belonged to or whether any 
soldiers from the 101st were aboard. Master Sgt. Terry Webster of division 
public affairs could not identify what unit operated the helicopter. 
 It was the deadliest helicopter crash in Iraq since a CH-53 Sea Stallion went 
down in bad weather in western Iraq on Jan. 26, 2005, killing 31 U.S. service 
members. 
 In Saturday's crash, records indicated that eight passengers and four crew 
members were aboard. 
 Three Marines were killed Sunday by small arms attacks in Fallujah, 40 miles 
west of Baghdad, the military said. Two other Marines were killed Saturday by 
roadside bombs in separate incidents, the military said. 
 With the latest Marine deaths, at least 2,199 members of the U.S. military 
have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. 
That toll did not include those killed aboard the Black Hawk. 
 In other violence Sunday, five people died in separate attacks in Baghdad, 
including a policeman killed by a suicide car bomber targeting an Interior 
Ministry patrol. Seven others were wounded. 
 Meanwhile, a French engineer abducted Dec. 5 apparently was dumped on a 
Baghdad street by his fleeing captors and recovered by U.S. troops, who turned 
him turned over to the French Embassy on Sunday, according to Iraqi police and 
the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. 
   
  
  
  |