Two Black Hawks collided, and crashed over Mosul on November, 15th, killing at least 17 US soldiers. One of the choppers swerved after encountering gun fire,

and apparently crashed into the other Black Hawk, sending both choppers down, and killing almost everyone involved.

The Black Hawk crash occurred just after sunset, and was one of the the most recent incidents involving US forces in Iraq. There were 17 soliers killed during

the latest calamity in Iraq, and 5 were wounded from the 101st Airborne. It is not known whether pilot error was involved in the crash, because the situation

is still being investigated by the Pentagon.

In other developments, al Qaeda struck again in Istanbul Turkey killing 23, and wounding 303 during the bombing of two Synagogues. Security cameras taped two pickup trucks driving up to the Synagogues with about 800 pounds of explosives.

Al Jazeera reported that an email was sent to Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of Al Quds al Arabi, in which al Qaeda affiliate the Abu Hafs al Masri Brigades claimed

responsibility for the attacks. The latest al Qaeda bombing tends to indicate that the al Qaeda network has not been stopped by the US, or antiterrorist operations within Turkey.

In a related story, Rumsfeld has asserted that the the new provisional authority in Iraq will not mean that US troops will be coming home soon. According to

Rumsfeld: "The timetable or the way ahead that the (Iraqi) Governing Council has been describing relates to the governance aspects of the country and not to the security aspect …. That's on a separate track."

The only real possibility that the indefinite occupation of Iraq by US forces, will end within any type of reasonable time frame would be a change of leadership, during next years election. At this point, there are no current plans by Rumsfeld to reduce

US force levels in Iraq.