Monday, May 15, 2006

Chopper Down

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter south of Baghdad and killed two soldiers, bringing the weekend death toll of American service members to seven, the U.S. military said Monday. The helicopter attack occurred Sunday during fighting in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of the Iraqi capital, the military said. It was the second helicopter shot down in the past six weeks over that area, commonly known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the large number of insurgent attacks. An Apache helicopter went down there April 1. Two U.S. Marines died Sunday during unspecified "enemy action" in Anbar Province, the area of western
Iraq that is the heart of the Sunni-Arab led insurgency, the U.S. command said. Two U.S. Army soldiers also died Sunday in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad, and another U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Saturday. The fatalities raised to 2,443 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the war began in 2003, according to a count by The Associated Press