9 GIs Die in Iraq; Bombs Kill At Least 175
BAGHDAD In western Iraq, an American transport helicopter crashed near an air base, killing five troopers, the military said. The CH47 Chinook helicopter was conducting a routine post-maintenance test flight when it went down near the Taqaddum air base, the American military said.
Four other American soldiers were reported killed in combat three in an explosion near their vehicle Monday in the northwestern Nineveh province. The fourth died of wounds suffered in western Baghdad.
The deaths raised to at least 3,700 the number of American military personnel who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, four suicide bombers struck at communities of a small Kurdish sect in northwestern Iraq with nearly simultaneous attacks yesterday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 more, Iraqi military and local officials said. The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since November 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim enclave of Sadr City.
