US identifies captured pilots

Iraqi television last night showed two men said to have been the crew of a US Apache helicopter forced down during heavy fighting in central Iraq.

The two wore cream-coloured overalls and did not speak to the camera but appeared confused.

They turned their heads and looked in different directions as the camera filmed them.

The two were named as in the US as Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Young, 26, and Chief Warrant Officer David Williams, 30.

The TV “show” appeared to be in defiance of the Geneva Conventions.

It was also shown on Abu Dhabi TV and Gulf satellite station Al-Jazeera.

Iraq’s state television later showed a collection of documents arrayed on the floor. They included what looked like identification cards and a Visa credit card.

Al-Jazeera carried a brief clip from Iraqi television that showed cards from one man’s wallet spread across a table, including a Texas driver’s licence, a bank card, phone cards and credit cards.

Earlier Iraqi forces, with a hail of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, downed two sophisticated US Apache attack 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 Times.

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 Apache pilots said they were forced to abandon most of their targets because of an intense curtain of fire that rose from streets, roofs and backyards, hitting nearly all their aircraft, a Washington Post correspondent reported from the scene.

“It was coming from all directions – I got shot front, back, left and right,” said pilot Bob Duffney, 41, who flew combat helicopters in the 1991 Gulf War.

“In Desert Storm, we didn’t have a firefight like this,” he said.

Pilots said they came under all sorts of fire – some apparently from Iraqi troops using anti-aircraft artillery, some from individuals firing Kalashnikov rifles or rocket-propelled grenades.

Much of it rose from tree-lined suburban streets and backyards, raising a spectre of how dangerous urban combat could be as S forces approach Baghdad.

"It’s somewhat frustrating. We can’t take out a street block, because of the way we go to war,” said Colonel Bill Wolf, commander of the Army’s 11th Aviation Regiment, referring to concerns about harming civilians.

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.