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By SAMEER N. YACOUB, AP
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Jan. 26) - A U.S. military transport helicopter crashed in bad weather in Iraq's western desert Wednesday, killing 31 people, all believed to be Marines, in the deadliest incident for U.S. troops since the war began, officials said. Insurgents killed four American troops in an ambush and carried out a flurry of attacks on sites linked to this weekend's elections.
A Bush administration official said there were no survivors from the crash and that the cause was not immediately known.
The CH-53 Sea Stallion, which was carrying personnel from the 1st Marine Division, went down about 1:20 a.m. near the town of Rutbah, about 220 miles west of Baghdad, while conducting security operations, the military said in a statement.
A search and rescue team has reached the site and an investigation into what caused the crash was under way. The administration official said there was bad weather at the time.
The official said Wednesday that all 31 people killed in the crash were believed to be U.S. Marines - the most American servicemembers to die in a single incident in Iraq. It was also the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the March 2003 invasion.
''We are saddened anytime there is loss of life of our troops in harm's way,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
In Iraq's Anbar province, four U.S. Marines were killed in fighting, the military said in a statement.
The statement gave no further details, but WABC reporter Jim Dolan, who was embedded with the troops who were attacked, said the deaths came when insurgents ambushed a Marine convoy leaving the town of Haditha, west of Baghdad, hitting a vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade.
With the four Marines' deaths, at least 1,376 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count. If all 31 dead in the crash are confirmed to be military personnel, the count would rise to 1,407.
The previous single deadliest incident for U.S. troops was also a helicopter crash: a November 2004 collision of two Black Hawk helicopters that were trying to avoid ground fire, killing 17 servicemembers. Earlier that month, a Chinook transport helicopter was shot down by shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile near Fallujah, killing 16 American soldiers and wounding 26.
The U.S. military has lost at least 33 helicopters since the start of the war, including at least 20 brought down by hostile fire, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.
The deadliest day for American troops during the initial invasion of Iraq was March 23, 2003, when 26 Americans were killed in a number of separate incidents. President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 2003, but fighting has continued.
Last month, a suicide bomb exploded at a mess tent in a base near Mosul, killing 22 people including 14 U.S. soldiers and three American contractors.
Meanwhile, insurgents carried out a string of five car bombs across the country Wednesday, including three that exploded in rapid succession in Riyadh, a tense town north of Baghdad. At least five people, including three policemen, were killed. One of the bombs targeted a U.S. convoy but there was no report of casualties, police said.
Four American soldiers were injured in a car bombing Wednesday in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, the U.S. command said. Another car bomb targeted a multinational forces convoy on the road to Baghdad's international airport, injuring four soldiers, the command said.
The attack temporarily closed the airport road, one of the country's most dangerous. Up to four mortar shells exploded Wednesday near a police station in the northern Baghdad suburb of Sabaa al-Bor, injuring at least one Iraqi.
A Web site statement, purportedly from al-Qaida in Iraq, said it carried out the attack on the airport road, claiming that the targets were Americans.
The group also warned Iraqis to stay away from the polls in Sunday's election.
''Here are the Americans calling for the fraudulent elections and here are the soldiers of (interim Prime Minister Ayad) Allawi competing to protect their brothers of the Jews and the Christians,'' a separate Web statement signed by the group said. ''The enemies of God will see that death is their destiny and failure their ally.''
''Oh people, be careful. Be careful not to be near the centers of infidelity and vice, the polling centers,'' it said, ''Don't blame us but blame yourselves'' if harmed.
The statement's authenticity could not be verified, but it was the second in two days purportedly by Islamic militants in Iraq to warn of deadly attacks surrounding the election.
In new attacks, two schools slated to be used as polling stations were bombed overnight, and a bomb was found in a third school but defused.
A ground floor classroom in one of the buildings, a preparatory school for girls, was littered with broken glass and its main entrance was blackened and clogged with debris.
Al-Arabiya television broadcast a videotape showing three men identified by insurgents as election workers who were kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul. The satellite station said the three were abducted by the Nineveh Mujahedeen, which threatened to attack polling stations on election day.
In other election-related attacks, gunmen opened fire on the local headquarters of the Communist Party and a major Kurdish party north of Baghdad, a police official said.
Assailants blasted the two buildings with heavy machine gun fire and killed a traffic policeman in the city of Baqouba, said police 1st Lt. Hassan Ahmed. The buildings house the city's offices of the communists and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. There was no word on casualties in those shootings.
Residents of the insurgent-filled city of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, reported clashes there Wednesday between U.S. troops and rebels. The fighting erupted when militants attacked a U.S. patrol with rocket-propelled grenades, the residents said. One Iraqi was killed and two were wounded, doctors said.
U.S. troops found at least six bombs at different locations around Baghdad, the military said. Police discovered two more bombs in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where turnout in Sunday's national elections is expected to be high.
Iraqis will choose a 275-member National Assembly and regional legislatures. Sunni Muslim extremists have threatened to sabotage the election and many Sunni clerics have called for a boycott because of the presence of 170,000 U.S. and other foreign troops.
In Baghdad's Sadr City district, Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops raided a Shiite mosque, detaining up to 25 followers of a radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police and the cleric's supporters said.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Jan. 26) - A U.S. military transport helicopter crashed in bad weather in Iraq's western desert Wednesday, killing 31 people, all believed to be Marines, in the deadliest incident for U.S. troops since the war began, officials said. Insurgents killed four American troops in an ambush and carried out a flurry of attacks on sites linked to this weekend's elections.
A Bush administration official said there were no survivors from the crash and that the cause was not immediately known.
The CH-53 Sea Stallion, which was carrying personnel from the 1st Marine Division, went down about 1:20 a.m. near the town of Rutbah, about 220 miles west of Baghdad, while conducting security operations, the military said in a statement.
A search and rescue team has reached the site and an investigation into what caused the crash was under way. The administration official said there was bad weather at the time.
The official said Wednesday that all 31 people killed in the crash were believed to be U.S. Marines - the most American servicemembers to die in a single incident in Iraq. It was also the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the March 2003 invasion.
''We are saddened anytime there is loss of life of our troops in harm's way,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
In Iraq's Anbar province, four U.S. Marines were killed in fighting, the military said in a statement.
The statement gave no further details, but WABC reporter Jim Dolan, who was embedded with the troops who were attacked, said the deaths came when insurgents ambushed a Marine convoy leaving the town of Haditha, west of Baghdad, hitting a vehicle with a rocket-propelled grenade.
With the four Marines' deaths, at least 1,376 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count. If all 31 dead in the crash are confirmed to be military personnel, the count would rise to 1,407.
The previous single deadliest incident for U.S. troops was also a helicopter crash: a November 2004 collision of two Black Hawk helicopters that were trying to avoid ground fire, killing 17 servicemembers. Earlier that month, a Chinook transport helicopter was shot down by shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile near Fallujah, killing 16 American soldiers and wounding 26.
The U.S. military has lost at least 33 helicopters since the start of the war, including at least 20 brought down by hostile fire, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.
The deadliest day for American troops during the initial invasion of Iraq was March 23, 2003, when 26 Americans were killed in a number of separate incidents. President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 2003, but fighting has continued.
Last month, a suicide bomb exploded at a mess tent in a base near Mosul, killing 22 people including 14 U.S. soldiers and three American contractors.
Meanwhile, insurgents carried out a string of five car bombs across the country Wednesday, including three that exploded in rapid succession in Riyadh, a tense town north of Baghdad. At least five people, including three policemen, were killed. One of the bombs targeted a U.S. convoy but there was no report of casualties, police said.
Four American soldiers were injured in a car bombing Wednesday in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, the U.S. command said. Another car bomb targeted a multinational forces convoy on the road to Baghdad's international airport, injuring four soldiers, the command said.
The attack temporarily closed the airport road, one of the country's most dangerous. Up to four mortar shells exploded Wednesday near a police station in the northern Baghdad suburb of Sabaa al-Bor, injuring at least one Iraqi.
A Web site statement, purportedly from al-Qaida in Iraq, said it carried out the attack on the airport road, claiming that the targets were Americans.
The group also warned Iraqis to stay away from the polls in Sunday's election.
''Here are the Americans calling for the fraudulent elections and here are the soldiers of (interim Prime Minister Ayad) Allawi competing to protect their brothers of the Jews and the Christians,'' a separate Web statement signed by the group said. ''The enemies of God will see that death is their destiny and failure their ally.''
''Oh people, be careful. Be careful not to be near the centers of infidelity and vice, the polling centers,'' it said, ''Don't blame us but blame yourselves'' if harmed.
The statement's authenticity could not be verified, but it was the second in two days purportedly by Islamic militants in Iraq to warn of deadly attacks surrounding the election.
In new attacks, two schools slated to be used as polling stations were bombed overnight, and a bomb was found in a third school but defused.
A ground floor classroom in one of the buildings, a preparatory school for girls, was littered with broken glass and its main entrance was blackened and clogged with debris.
Al-Arabiya television broadcast a videotape showing three men identified by insurgents as election workers who were kidnapped in the northern city of Mosul. The satellite station said the three were abducted by the Nineveh Mujahedeen, which threatened to attack polling stations on election day.
In other election-related attacks, gunmen opened fire on the local headquarters of the Communist Party and a major Kurdish party north of Baghdad, a police official said.
Assailants blasted the two buildings with heavy machine gun fire and killed a traffic policeman in the city of Baqouba, said police 1st Lt. Hassan Ahmed. The buildings house the city's offices of the communists and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. There was no word on casualties in those shootings.
Residents of the insurgent-filled city of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, reported clashes there Wednesday between U.S. troops and rebels. The fighting erupted when militants attacked a U.S. patrol with rocket-propelled grenades, the residents said. One Iraqi was killed and two were wounded, doctors said.
U.S. troops found at least six bombs at different locations around Baghdad, the military said. Police discovered two more bombs in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where turnout in Sunday's national elections is expected to be high.
Iraqis will choose a 275-member National Assembly and regional legislatures. Sunni Muslim extremists have threatened to sabotage the election and many Sunni clerics have called for a boycott because of the presence of 170,000 U.S. and other foreign troops.
In Baghdad's Sadr City district, Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops raided a Shiite mosque, detaining up to 25 followers of a radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, police and the cleric's supporters said.
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