Four American Troops Die When Helicopter Plunges Into Lake
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Four American Marines died when a Sea Knight helicopter plunged into a lake in volatile Anbar province, the military said yesterday, raising to 13 the number of American troops killed during a bloody weekend in Iraq.
It was the second military aircraft to go down in a week in Anbar, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents, although the military said mechanical problems rather than gunfire had forced the emergency landing on Sunday.
“The pilots maintained control of the aircraft the entire time,” the military said.
A Marine was pulled from the water, but attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. The bodies of three missing Marines were found in a subsequent search, the military said. Twelve other passengers survived.
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, an American military spokesman, declined to provide details about the twin-rotor CH-46 helicopter’s mission or the reason for its forced landing, saying the incident was under investigation.
The helicopter, from the Third Marine Aircraft wing, had the ability to land and taxi in the water in case of emergency. It came down in Lake Qadisiyah, a huge reservoir behind the hydroelectric dam at Haditha on the Euphrates River.
The deaths came on a weekend in which nine other American troops were killed, including five in Anbar. The weekend’s violence pushed the total number of American service members who have died since the war started in March 2003 to at least 2,901.
An American fighter jet also crashed last week in a field, killing the Air Force pilot.
Iraqi state TV, meanwhile, reported that Iraqi police found half a ton of explosives, including suicide belts and roadside bombs, in Anbar — a province the size of North Carolina that stretches west from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
The violence persisted yesterday, with at least 13 people killed in attacks nationwide. The victims included Nabil Ibrahim al-Dulaimi, who was a 36-year-old Sunni news editor with the private, independent Dijlah radio station who was gunned down in his car on his way to work.
Mr. Dulaimi’s slaying raised to at least 93 the number of journalists killed in Iraq since the Iraq war began, according the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
Police also found 56 bodies in Baghdad and the province of Diyala, northeast of the capital. Forty-eight of those were handcuffed, blindfolded, and shot before they were dumped in two different areas of the capital — 18 on the Sunni-dominated western bank of the Tigris River and 30 on the eastern side, which is largely Shiite.
America’s top two officials in Iraq — Zalmay Khalilzad and the top American military commander in Iraq, General George Casey Jr. — issued a statement denouncing the surge of violence in the capital.
“We condemn in the strongest language the recent car bombings, attacks, and retribution killings by extremists against peaceful Iraqis in Baghdad,” they said. “We implore all Iraqis not to become pawns of those who seek to destroy you and your country. Do not allow yourself to be drawn down the road of senseless brutality by striking back.”