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U.S. copter crash kills 12 in Iraq

Weather may have been a factor, but the military hasn't ruled out an attack. The victims were believed to be Americans.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter went down in northern Iraq, killing all 12 Americans believed to be aboard in the deadliest crash in nearly a year, while five U.S. Marines died in weekend attacks, the military said Sunday.

The latest deaths followed an especially bloody week in which about 200 Iraqis and a dozen U.S. troops were killed. Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, claimed headway in forming a stable coalition government following the Dec. 15 elections, whose final results may be released this week.

U.S. military officials said the UH-60 Black Hawk crashed just before midnight Saturday about 7 miles east of Tal Afar, a northern city near the Syrian border that has seen heavy fighting with insurgents.

Records indicated that eight passengers and four crew members were aboard. They were all believed to be Americans, military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said. The military usually identifies the armed forces branch of fallen service members, opening the possibility that at least some of the passengers were government contractors or working with intelligence services.

Johnson did not say what caused the crash, but bad weather has racked most of Iraq.

The helicopter had been flying in support of troops from Task Force Band of Brothers, the U.S. unit that patrols north-central Iraq. The unit's public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Ed Loomis, said in an e-mail on Sunday night that "the investigation of the causes for the incident has just begun and nothing has been ruled out at this very early stage."

The Black Hawk was flying between bases when communications were lost, the military said. After a search, the helicopter was found about noon Sunday, the military said.

It was the deadliest helicopter crash in Iraq since a CH-53 Sea Stallion went down in bad weather in western Iraq on Jan. 26, killing 31 U.S. service members.

There have been nearly two dozen fatal helicopter crashes in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, killing at least 144 people, according to a tally by the Associated Press. Some of the wrecks have been accidents, and others have been the result of hostile fire.

The military often flies missions at night, including the transport of troops via helicopter. But aviation experts say darkness can complicate making an emergency landing, difficult in a helicopter under the best of circumstances.

"Helicopters are fairly unstable vehicles that need constant pilot attention," said Peter Field, a Vietnam-era Marine colonel and former director of the Navy's test pilot school in Patuxent River, Md. "Flying over the vacant desert at night would pose a little bit more of a task for the pilot."

Even worse, sandstorms and swirling sand caused by bad weather can disorient pilots, especially when they are operating in the dark and using night-vision goggles. Military experts have said such storms can lead crews to momentarily lose their ability to distinguish up from down.

Nearby Tal Afar has long been a site of insurgent activity. In September, U.S. planes bombed several houses in Tal Afar, which one military official referred to as a "terrorist incubator," after the town's residents were urged to evacuate. Weapons caches and high-tech bomb factories were uncovered by U.S. troops.

Three Marines killed Sunday were hit by small-arms attacks in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. Two other Marines were killed Saturday by roadside bombs in separate incidents, the military said.

With the latest Marine deaths, at least 2,199 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. That toll did not include those killed aboard the Black Hawk.

NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT: The leader of Iraq's main Sunni Arab political group said after meeting President Jalal Talabani that significant headway had been made in efforts to form a government of national unity. "Talabani and I have an identical point of view regarding the formation of a national unity government based on consensus," Adnan al-Dulaimi said. Dulaimi confirmed that Iraq's two Kurdish leaders, Talabani and Kurdistan regional President Massoud Barzani, have been mediating with other groups to form a coalition government. Their efforts seem to have forged an understanding between the main Shiite religious bloc and Dulaimi's group - which represent two traditionally hostile camps whose enmity often threatens to plunge Iraq into sectarian warfare. Talabani said Saturday that Iraq's political groups could form a coalition government within weeks - and some experts say the new government could be formed next month.

FRENCH ENGINEER: Meanwhile, a French engineer abducted Dec. 5 apparently was dumped on a Baghdad street by his fleeing captors and recovered by U.S. troops, who turned him turned over to the French Embassy on Sunday, according to Iraqi police and the French Foreign Ministry in Paris. Bernard Planche, 52, was kidnapped on his way to work at a water plant. Planche worked for a nongovernmental organization called AACCESS and was found Saturday night near a checkpoint in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood. His captors had demanded the withdrawal from Iraq of French troops - even though the country has none in Iraq. The French Foreign Ministry said Planche should be returning to France shortly.

U.S. RAID: Sunni Arabs expressed anger over a raid by U.S. troops on the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a major Sunni clerical group. The troops raided the headquarters of the association, thought by some to be close to some insurgent groups, at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque before dawn Sunday. "The Americans bear the responsibility for this assault," said Sheik Younis al-Ekaidi. "This crime came as punishment for the association's position on the occupation and its position on the latest elections." A U.S. military official said the raid came after a tip from an Iraqi citizen that there was "significant terrorist related activity in the building," and six people were detained.

PEDIATRIC HOSPITAL: U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad on Sunday visited a pediatric hospital in eastern Baghdad whose renovation is one of 19 such projects the U.S. government is financing in Iraq. He said the Americans are investing in children "because they are the future of this country." A health official attached to the U.S. Embassy said the United States will have spent $786-million on Iraqi medical infrastructure over the three years ending this September.

--Information from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post was used in this report.

[Last modified January 9, 2006, 00:57:08]