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By Wire servicesAs troops attack insurgents, a tape purportedly by Hussein urges Iraqis to fight.
The deadliest single incident for U.S. forces in Iraq began with a drive-by shooting at a bank in the northern city of Mosul.
Someone in a sedan had fired at the Industrial Bank in the Sinjar Gate neighborhood of Mosul early Saturday evening, according to accounts by U.S. officials and Iraqi witnesses. American troops were guarding the bank, and one soldier was wounded in the leg. Troops called in a roving, rapid-reaction UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter to pursue the attackers.
Then something went very wrong, U.S. military officials said Sunday. The quick-reaction chopper struck another Black Hawk, which was transporting troops between bases, and both crashed onto residential rooftops, erupted in flames and exploded. In all, 17 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division died and five were wounded.
On Sunday, bodies were pulled from the wreckage and metal fragments of the twisted aircraft were hauled by investigators to a nearby base for examination. The victims' names were withheld until families could be notified.
The victims' division is based at Fort Campbell, Ky. The deaths marked the largest single loss of life for the 101st Airborne Division since 1988, when 17 soldiers died in the collision of two Black Hawk helicopters during training.
Also Sunday, an audiotape purportedly made by Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to escalate their fight against the occupation, and troops flooded a Baghdad neighborhood in a new U.S. military offensive against guerrillas.
Military officials at the 101st Division headquarters in Mosul said they had not yet determined how the helicopter collision occurred. They have just begun interviewing survivors and reviewing tapes from an air base control tower. Maj. Trey Cate, the 101st Airborne spokesman, dismissed as speculation reports from soldiers on the scene that one of the helicopters had been struck by groundfire, possibly a rocket-propelled grenade.
"It could be lots of things," Cate said. "It was dark. The Black Hawks fly without lights. I wouldn't go out on a limb and say they were definitely shot down."
In the neighborhood of the crash site, there were as many versions of events as there were curious residents gazing at the wreckage being pulled off the rooftops by a crane. There were also divergent opinions about the presence of U.S. troops in the city.
"They were definitely shot down," said Sabhan Mahmoud, a truck driver. "I am only sad because they fell on civilian houses. If it makes the Americans go home, I will be happy."
But not all of the residents of this working-class area were as critical of the U.S. occupation. "The Americans should stay for a while. If they leave, things will get much worse, and maybe Saddam Hussein will come back," said Omar Younis, a parking lot attendant. "The helicopters were not shot down. There was no shooting at them."
Among the least hostile observers were the owners of the two houses damaged by the helicopters. The Black Hawk with the rapid-reaction force aboard smashed into the flat-roof, cinderblock home of Hashem Mohammed Hussein, a laborer. It was evening prayer time and he was stooping and kneeling toward Mecca when his two-story house shook and he heard a loud explosion. "I thought it was artillery," he said. "It never, ever entered my mind that a helicopter could crash on my roof. I only learned what it was when neighbors broke down the front gate and screamed, "Hashem, there's a helicopter on your roof!' "
The blast tore a hole through the ceiling, smashing a low wall and charring a terrace. No one among the seven occupants of the house, including five children, was hurt.
About 300 yards east, toward the Tigris River, the one-story home of Habaa Abdul Mohsen, a student at Mosul University, was hit by the second copter. None of the dozen occupants were injured. The Black Hawk charred the roof, clotheslines and walls and burned fig trees and reeds in the garden. "I saw fire on the roof," Mohsen said. "When the helicopter landed it was already on fire. I saw a rotor stuck in the truck in the back. The electricity went out and we all ran from the house."
The owners of both of the houses said U.S. officers assured them they would be compensated for damages, and both men were conciliatory. "If they leave, who knows what will happen," Mohsen said. "They should stay, settle things and then leave."
Mosul has been the scene of increasing violence against U.S. forces and civilians who work for the occupation authorities. Saturday morning, an interpreter for the U.S.-appointed mayor was shot and killed in his car while taking his 16-year-old son to school. The boy died of a gunshot wound to the head. It was the third ambush in three weeks of Iraqi civilians who have cooperated with the Americans in Mosul. A journalist who criticized Islamic militant groups was also gunned down.
Meanwhile on Sunday, an Arabic-language satellite television outlet broadcast a message it said was recorded by Hussein, the deposed Iraqi president, in which he called collaborators "stray dogs."
The recorded voice called on Iraqis to take the path of holy war and resistance. Speaking of President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the speaker warned: "Iraq will rebel against their evil intentions to colonize it and to wield influence in it. The evil ones now find themselves in a crisis."
The speaker also urged Iraqis to attack "political agents brought by foreign armies." This was an apparent reference to the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and other assemblies that are designed to usher Iraq toward a democratically elected government.
The Black Hawk crashes shed new light on the sometimes unorthodox duties of U.S. troops in Iraq and the dangers they face when forced to carry out mundane tasks that blunt the superiority of their training and equipment. The American bank guards were attached to the 101st Airborne, a division designed for rapid strikes and quick relay of forces to cut off enemy units. Static positioning is not the division's strength, and military officials say they are trying to turn over tasks such as guard duty and law enforcement to Iraqis.
About 20,000 soldiers in Iraq are based at Fort Campbell, the Army's third-most populous post. Most are on one-year deployments, with many of the deployments ending in February or shortly thereafter.
Fort Campbell, a close-knit patriotic military community on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, has lost 53 soldiers in the Iraq war, all but two from the 101st. In addition, 16 soldiers from two special forces units also based at the post have been killed since Sept. 11, 2001, fighting in Afghanistan and the Philippines.
"What I see here is deep concern, and I see fear. I see the unknown and I see people turning to one another," the Rev. Carl McCarthy said after Mass at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Hopkinsville, 15 miles north of Fort Campbell.
In Baghdad, air, mortar and artillery strikes continued during the fourth day of Operation Iron Hammer, the new offensive against insurgents. Explosions were heard in parts of the city Sunday evening as U.S. troops hit suspected resistance refuges.
Insurgents either fired a mortar shell or set off a bomb near the American civilian headquarters. There were no injuries; the explosion left only a small crater in the pavement.
- Information from the Washington Post and Associated Press was used in this report.