Iraqis shoot down US helicopter

IRAQI forces shot down a US helicopter gunship in western Iraq yesterday, just hours after US fighter jets bombed what they said was “a terrorist training camp” in central Iraq.

The incidents came as US ground troops wound up a massive sweep in a Sunni Muslim enclave north of Baghdad, aimed at rooting out the organisers of attacks on occupation forces. Yesterday’s events marked a sharp escalation of US military operations in central and western Iraq, where guerrillas have intensified attacks on US troops in recent weeks.

“It’s one of the largest operations since the war,” US Central Command spokesman Lieutenant Ryan Fitzgerald said.

The downed AH-64 Apache helicopter belonged to the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division, a Central Command statement said. A pair of Apaches fired on “irregular forces” at the crash scene, while US ground troops secured the site and rescued the uninjured two-man crew.

It was the first aircraft shot down by ground fire since Saddam Hussein was ousted two months ago. Central Command did not say exactly where it went down.

Hours earlier, at about 1.45am, US planes attacked a site they described as a terror camp 95 miles north of Baghdad.

A firefight broke out, and one coalition soldier was slightly injured. The statement did not give any Iraqi casualty figures.

Meanwhile, in the third day of an assault dubbed Operation Peninsula Strike, thousands of American troops swept through an area centred on the Tigris River town of Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Ten to 15 Iraqis were killed in the sweep, and four US soldiers suffered gunshot wounds, said US Sergeant Forest Geary.