Al-Qaida claims to have shot down US helicopter in Iraq

AL-QAIDA in Iraq claimed yesterday to have shot down a US attack helicopter that crashed near Ramadi, killing two Marines on board.

A third serviceman died when his patrol struck a roadside bomb while rushing to the rescue.

Another American soldier was killed yesterday when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb during a combat operation near Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.

It means at least 2,037 US military service members have died since the war began in 2003.

The helicopter crashed on Wednesday in the insurgent stronghold west of the capital during two days of fighting in the area that saw three other US soldiers killed by roadside bombs.

Boys stood beside the wreckage yesterday and residents buried dead from what they said was a subsequent US air strike nearby.

“Brethren in al-Qaida in Iraq’s military wing downed a Super Cobra attack helicopter in Ramadi with a Strella rocket, thanks be to God,” the group said on an Islamist Web forum often used for its claims.

The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed.

Maj Gen Rick Lynch did not specify the cause of the crash, but said witnesses “believe they saw a munition fired at the helicopter and saw the helicopter break in pieces in midair and then crash.”

A US fighter jet on Wednesday dropped two 500-pound bombs on what the military said was an “insurgent command centre” about 400 yards from where the helicopter went down.

Video from the scene yesterday showed residents digging through the rubble of several homes and burying a half-dozen bodies in graves.

In a separate statement, Al-Qaida said it sentenced to death two Moroccan Embassy employees kidnapped last month in Iraq.

Two Iraqi policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Thursday, and bodies of 12 men who had been kidnapped and killed were found in a sewage station, police said.

Few attacks by Sunni-led insurgents were reported yesterday as Sunni Arabs began the three-day religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which ends the fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

But in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, retired government employee Aqel Omar said: “The real Eid for Iraqis will be the day that occupation forces get out of our country.”