Report: Low tech Iraqi weaponry downed two helicopters

Iraqi forces, with a hail of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, downed two Apache helicopters today and forced 30 other helicopters in their brigade back to their base, The New York Times reported.

One two member crew was unaccounted for; the other was rescued.

All 32 helicopters sustained some damage, occasionally slight, US army officials told the newspaper.

The attack on the helicopters today surprised US army leaders, and may cause them to adjust their military strategy, which relied on the Apaches to destroy Iraq’s armoured divisions that ring Baghdad, said the Times

A CNN correspondent accompanying the United States Army Fifth Corps 11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, said the unit had been on a night-time combat mission targeting units of the elite Republican Guard.

The correspondent cited one of the pilots as saying they had run into a “hornet’s nest, a barrage of antiaircraft fire,” near the city of Kerbala, 70 miles south-west of Baghdad.

The Apaches use a powerful radar, called the Longbow, that directs their Hellfire missiles.

But the Apaches are suddenly coming under attack from relatively low-technology weaponry.

The Times said the US army may now may consider new tactics, such as additional close aerial bombardment, to support the Apaches as they hunt for armoured divisions.