US says enemy fire caused deadly air collision in IraqBAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military said on Friday that four soldiers killed last month when two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq had been the target of enemy fire.
An investigation "determined that the two OH-58 helicopters involved in the January 25 incident in Kirkuk province were engaged and struck by hostile fire," army spokesman for north Iraq Lieutenant Colonel David Doherty told AFP.
"While executing evasive manoeuvres in response to the hostile fire, the two OH-58s collided, resulting in the catastrophic loss of both aircraft and crews," he said, without elaborating on what had been fired at them.
An insurgent group claimed responsibility for downing the helicopters which were on a reconnaissance mission at the time, but the US military initially denied they had come under fire.
The Nakshabandiya group, close to executed president Saddam Hussein's still fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, said it had shot down the aircraft.
The group handed out leaflets on the streets of Iraq's disputed oil hub of Kirkuk, saying that they had downed two helicopters and "would soon show a video," an AFP correspondent witnessed.
The claim was repeated in a statement posted on the group's website.
The death of the four US troops was the worst single toll in more than four months, although the deadliest single crash was on November 15, 2003, when two Blackhawks collided near Mosul, killing 17 soldiers.
At least 4,252 US military personnel have died in Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion, according to an AFP tally based on the independent website
www.icasualties.org.
On Friday President Barack Obama announced his intention to end US combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010 and said all American forces would be pulled out by the end of 2011.
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