Escalation with US forces in Iraq, US planes shot down
Iraq-USA, Politics, 6/13/2003

The American central leadership admitted that a US Apache Helicopter was shot down yesterday by Iraqi fighters to the west of Baghdad, noting that all its occupants were rescued.

A statement by the US leadership said that two other Apache Helicopters opened fire at "irregular forces" which were near the position where the helicopter was downed, but did not define the place of the incident.

In a later time, the US leadership announced that one F-16 plane crashed and its pilot survived to the southern west of Baghdad. The statement added that the plane was flying from an advanced air base in south west Asia to support operations in Iraq. In the battlefield, the American army said that the forces led by the USA launched an attack against what it called a camp for training terrorists, north west of Baghdad yesterday and bombarded it from the air and fought fierce battles against Iraqis on the ground.

A military statement said that the operation started in the early hours by an air strike before the air- borne soldiers of contingent 101 moved towards the camp which is 150 Km from Baghdad.

American officials said that 4,000 American troops are taking part in the largest American operation in Iraq since the end of the main military operations there and that they are mopping up the area around Tigris river to the north east of Balad city.

In the capital Baghdad, a spokesman for the American- British coalition announced that several persons were killed in confrontations that took place with the coalition forces to the west of Iraq on Wednesday evening.

Meantime, eye witnesses in al-Musil said that violent confrontations erupted yesterday in the city which is situated to the north of Iraq between members of the police and former Iraqi soldiers who were demonstrating for paying their salaries payed.

Previous Stories:
  Some 45 American soldiers killed in Iraqi attacks post war   (6/12/2003)
  Occupation forces detain Sadoun Hammadi; Rumsfeld: overcoming resistance takes months   (6/11/2003)
  Two American soldiers were killed in attacks in al-Faloujam al-Qaem   (6/10/2003)

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