US forces reeling after bloodiest attack yet



By Michael Georgy

Baisa, Iraq - Guerrillas shot down a United States Chinook helicopter as it flew towards Baghdad airport on Sunday, killing at least 13 soldiers in the bloodiest single attack on occupying troops since Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

"Currently 13 soldiers are KIA (killed in action) and some 20 wounded," a US Army spokesperson told Reuters.

The crippled helicopter came down in farmland near the village of Baisa, south of the flashpoint town of Falluja, a stronghold of anti-US resistance 50km west of Baghdad.

'They fired a missile at one and missed, and then they hit the other'Several US helicopters circled overhead and other helicopters and US Humvees were parked around the wreckage.

The US Army said the helicopter was one of two Chinook transport helicopters heading towards Baghdad airport carrying soldiers on a rest and recreation trip.

It said the helicopter, carrying around 30 people including five crew, had been "shot down by an unknown weapon".

Locals in Falluja said two surface-to-air missiles had been fired but that only one hit its target.

"There were two American helicopters. They fired a missile at one and missed, and then they hit the other, which crashed and caught fire," witness Dawoud Suleiman said.

Troops kept reporters back from the crash site as another military helicopter with a red cross sign on its side landed, sending up clouds of dust from the dry scrubland.

U.S. soldiers told journalists to leave the area and confiscated film from photographers at the scene.

Also in Falluja, residents said a convoy of US soldiers in civilian vehicles was hit by a roadside bomb.

At least one US vehicle was ablaze at the site of the attack and a crowd of jubilant Iraqis gathered round. Television pictures showed a gleeful Iraqi youth wearing a US Army helmet.

Obviously the kid in the story was really a midget that was a member of Saddam's inner Baathist hold-out circle.

And Pigs can fly. Just any NeoCon.

that these kids who should have been in college or planning lives with their girlfriends and dancing all night were sacrificed so that the bushs crazy christian kleptocracy can steal more money for their cronies.

While the rejoicing of some Iraqui resistance forces et al will no doubt be highlighted by the media, the specter of death that has haunted the developing world for so long is now coming full circle to lead bushs psychotic nightmare, and that republican death rattle is what should be focused on.

if they are living in a psychotic nightmare? These people finally have a future after the noghtmare of Saddam. How come 20,000 Iraqis (and more coming) signed up the police force, working for the americans? Because they love their country and their new found freedom.

Once again, the Saddam supporting left are hailing the achievements of terrorists.

You know, the asshole the CIA put into power.

all the weapons he wanted.

Winked as he used the usual methods of terror...something

our 'Intelligence Agency' is an expert at.

He was a useful pawn in the Cold War. What part of this do you not get? Are you SO naive that you cannot see a bigger picture????

BTW - the Cold War was US v Soviet Union.

General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the American ground forces in Iraq : "the attacks as strategically and opertionally insignificant".

You have thousands of helicopters, you have hundred thousand of soldiers. One Chinook and 15 dead soldiers mean nothing. Please send more troops to Iraq (excluding Ricardo Sanchez' son). Let the dead US soldiers counter tells.

The other 3 soldiers that died in separate attacks in other areas of Iraq on the same day.

What a shame.

I would go and fight, but , well....how do I put it...

I am afraid to die.

So I just cheer and cheer and hope to overcome Iraq as the first country in the terrorist "dominoe theory".

I salivate at the thought of maybe one day being able to sacrifice my son or daughter to the freedom cause.

Down with Saddam!

All praise to halliburton!!