A US military helicopter crashed Sunday in the Tigris River in the northern town of Mosul while searching for a soldier, and both crewmembers were missing, a spokeswoman said.
The OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter was searching for an American soldier missing when the boat he was in capsized earlier in the day, the spokeswoman said, requesting anonymity. The soldier was on a river patrol with three other soldiers and some Iraqi policemen, she said.
According to The AP, the other three soldiers were safe but two Iraqi police officers and an Iraqi translator are reported dead, said the spokeswoman.
She did not, however, say what caused the crash of the helicopter, attached to the 101st Airborne Division.
The spokeswoman added that the search for the two pilots is under way, as well as an investigation into the crash in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
On Friday, a US Army OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing the two pilots. The crash took place near Qayyarah, some 30 miles south of Mosul.
Elsewhere, Iraqi fighters fired a rocket propelled grenade at a Bradley fighting vehicle that was on patrol in central Iraq, killing a US soldier, a military spokeswoman said Sunday.
The grenade, which was fired on Saturday in Baiji town, situated north of Tikrit, pierced the driver's compartment and critically injured the soldier, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, according to The AP.
The soldier was evacuated to a military hospital, where he died Sunday.
A second Bradley fighting vehicle returned fire toward the area from which the grenade was launched. Soldiers later captured six men who were in the "possession of a grenade launcher", Aberle added.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces arrested some 50 people and confiscated weapons in several raids in Iraq.
Troops raided several locations in Baqouba, 55 kilometers northeast of the capital, and captured 46 people. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
