'Rocket' brings down Black Hawk

Nine American troops were killed today when a Black Hawk helicopter on a medical mission went down in Iraq’s violent Sunni Triangle.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt the helicopter made an “emergency landing” near Fallujah, where rebels have forced down three helicopters since November.

A witness said he heard the whoosh of a rocket, saw it hit the aircraft in the tail and watched the chopper crash in flames.

Farmer Mohammed Ahmed al-Jamali, 27, who lives close to the crash site, said he rushed to the scene but there was nothing he could do since all those on board were dead.

He said there were two helicopters in the air, both with the distinctive red crosses of medical evacuation craft, and that the second one was hit.

“I was in the farm, I heard the sound, looked up and I saw the rocket hit. It hit it in the tail,” al-Jamali said.

Student Waleed Kurdi, 23, said he “heard a loud explosion and I saw the fire in the air.” He said the helicopter exploded in two before it hit the ground.

American troops arrived about an hour later, while a helicopter patrolled above, al-Jamali said.

Kimmitt said there were nine military personnel on board and all were killed.

He said the reason for the emergency landing was not immediately clear, that troops had secured the site of the crash and that an investigation was underway.

Soldiers kept journalists far from the site, about four miles south-west of Fallujah, but they were able to see soldiers collecting the wreckage.

The helicopter was a medical evacuation aircraft but it was unclear if it was carrying patients, a military official said.

In the deadliest single attack on US forces since the Iraq invasion began last March, 17 soldiers were killed on November 15 when two Black Hawk helicopters collided above Mosul in what the military called a probable grenade attack.

A US helicopter was shot down on January 2 near Fallujah, killing one soldier, and military officials said it almost certainly was shot down by rebels.

Guerillas hit a helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade near Fallujah on December 9, forcing it to make an emergency landing. The two crewmen on board are uninjured.

On November 2, a Chinook was shot down near Fallujah, killing 16 American soldiers and injuring 26. The military believes a SA-7 shoulder-fired missile slammed into one of the chopper’s rear-mounted engines.