U.S. To Change Helicopter Tactics In Iraq
The U.S. command has ordered changes in flight operations after four helicopters were shot down in the last two weeks, the chief military spokesman said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the aircraft were lost to hostile fire.
The crashes, which began Jan. 20, follow insurgent claims that they have received new stocks of anti-aircraft weapons — and a recent boast by Sunni militants that "God has granted new ways" to threaten U.S. aircraft.
All four helicopters were shot down during a recent increase in violence, which an Interior Ministry official said has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in the past week alone. At least 103 people were killed or found dead Sunday, most of them in Baghdad, police reported.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes of three Army and one private helicopter were incomplete but "it does appear they were all the result of some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down."
It was the first time a senior figure in the U.S. Iraq command had said publicly that all four helicopters were shot down.
Despite the losses, Caldwell said it was premature to conclude that the threat to U.S. aircraft posed by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen had increased dramatically.
"There's been an ongoing effort since we've been here to target our helicopters," Caldwell said. "Based on what we have seen, we're already making adjustments in our tactics and techniques and procedures as to how we employ our helicopters."
Caldwell did not elaborate, presumably for security reasons. In the past, defensive measures have included flying lower and faster, varying routes and using zigzag patterns over dangerous areas.
Three crashed in mostly Sunni areas and the fourth was shot down during fighting with Shiite cultists near Najaf. U.S. officials have accused Iran of providing sophisticated weapons to Shiite militants.
In December, a spokesman for Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party, Khudair al-Murshidi, told The Associated Press in Damascus, Syria, that Sunni insurgents had received shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and "we are going to surprise them," meaning U.S. forces.
Al-Murshidi did not say when or how the missiles were obtained.
Insurgents have used SA-7s, a shoulder-fired missile with an infrared homing device, against U.S. and British aircraft since 2003.
In an Internet statement, the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the latest crash — an Apache Longbow helicopter that went down Friday north of Baghdad, killing two crew members.
"We tell the enemies of God that the airspace of the Islamic State in Iraq is prohibited to your aircraft just like its lands are," the statement said. "God has granted new ways for the soldiers of the State of Iraq to confront your aircraft."
It was unclear if the "new ways" referred to new and advanced anti-aircraft weapons — such as SA-18 missiles — or was simply a boast.
U.S. military helicopters are equipped with long-range sensors and devices to jam radar and infrared technology, but they have proven vulnerable to intense gunfire, as well as rocket-propelled grenades.
The crashes have occurred in the run-up to the new U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, in which an additional 21,500 American troops and about 8,000 Iraqi soldiers are being sent mostly to Baghdad in another bid to quell sectarian violence.
Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar, a Shiite named to lead the crackdown, will take charge Monday and the operation will begin "very soon thereafter," U.S. adviser Col. Douglass Heckman said.
In other developments:
Sen. John McCain sought to weaken support for a resolution opposing President Bush's Iraq war strategy Sunday, saying proponents are intellectually dishonest. McCain contended the bipartisan proposal amounted to a demoralizing "vote of no confidence" in the U.S. military.
Iraqi police said more than 100 people have been killed or found dead in Iraq today, mostly in Baghdad, including the bullet-riddled bodies of 42 men found in several parts of the capital, handcuffed and blindfolded. Police said most of them showed signs of torture.
An Interior Ministry official said about 1,000 Iraqis have been killed in the past week, including 137 killed yesterday in a massive truck bombing at a Baghdad market.
The Arab League sent Mokhtar Lamani to Iraq to persuade its bitterly divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders to make peace. He failed, and has now resigned, disillusioned and nearly drained of hope. "I am no longer going to stand and watch Iraqis' bodies being taken to the cemetery," he said in Cairo, where he returned from Baghdad last week to deliver his resignation to the Arab League.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The crashes, which began Jan. 20, follow insurgent claims that they have received new stocks of anti-aircraft weapons — and a recent boast by Sunni militants that "God has granted new ways" to threaten U.S. aircraft.
All four helicopters were shot down during a recent increase in violence, which an Interior Ministry official said has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in the past week alone. At least 103 people were killed or found dead Sunday, most of them in Baghdad, police reported.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes of three Army and one private helicopter were incomplete but "it does appear they were all the result of some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down."
It was the first time a senior figure in the U.S. Iraq command had said publicly that all four helicopters were shot down.
Despite the losses, Caldwell said it was premature to conclude that the threat to U.S. aircraft posed by Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen had increased dramatically.
"There's been an ongoing effort since we've been here to target our helicopters," Caldwell said. "Based on what we have seen, we're already making adjustments in our tactics and techniques and procedures as to how we employ our helicopters."
Caldwell did not elaborate, presumably for security reasons. In the past, defensive measures have included flying lower and faster, varying routes and using zigzag patterns over dangerous areas.
Three crashed in mostly Sunni areas and the fourth was shot down during fighting with Shiite cultists near Najaf. U.S. officials have accused Iran of providing sophisticated weapons to Shiite militants.
In December, a spokesman for Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party, Khudair al-Murshidi, told The Associated Press in Damascus, Syria, that Sunni insurgents had received shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and "we are going to surprise them," meaning U.S. forces.
Al-Murshidi did not say when or how the missiles were obtained.
Insurgents have used SA-7s, a shoulder-fired missile with an infrared homing device, against U.S. and British aircraft since 2003.
In an Internet statement, the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the latest crash — an Apache Longbow helicopter that went down Friday north of Baghdad, killing two crew members.
"We tell the enemies of God that the airspace of the Islamic State in Iraq is prohibited to your aircraft just like its lands are," the statement said. "God has granted new ways for the soldiers of the State of Iraq to confront your aircraft."
It was unclear if the "new ways" referred to new and advanced anti-aircraft weapons — such as SA-18 missiles — or was simply a boast.
U.S. military helicopters are equipped with long-range sensors and devices to jam radar and infrared technology, but they have proven vulnerable to intense gunfire, as well as rocket-propelled grenades.
The crashes have occurred in the run-up to the new U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, in which an additional 21,500 American troops and about 8,000 Iraqi soldiers are being sent mostly to Baghdad in another bid to quell sectarian violence.
Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar, a Shiite named to lead the crackdown, will take charge Monday and the operation will begin "very soon thereafter," U.S. adviser Col. Douglass Heckman said.
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There is a dizzying menu of reasons, given by this administration, as to why an ivasion of Iraq was launched. They are used individually, interchangeably and every so often a new "reason" is added. Now we hear, from the C-in-C, that the US invasion in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam from turning Iraq into a terrorist staging post.
The ironies here are so bitter, the rationale so mind-boggling and the contradictions so glaring that one can only but wonder whether the administration believes its public to be simple. The facts, the truth and the evidence
If they can bring down some of our copters bravo for them, we'd be doing the same dam thing here if the Chinese army invaded the US to remove our president and "rebuild" America after bombing the krap out of Washington.
So the way I see it, they have a right to defend themselves against OUR aggression and illegal war.
Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or terorists or WMD.
Well said - you hit the nail on the head many times.
"let me see mcdazz, have you done your service to the country? I think not. Shut up!!"
Tsk, tsk, royrroy, such anger.
Here's an idea - if you support GW Bush and his moronic policies, why don't you go down to the local recruitment center and join up instead of letting others do the fighting for you?
Of course, if you're as I suspect you are and either mentally deficient, too fat or too old, just do us all a favor and take a short walk off a tall mountain.
I hope you're the last in your bloodline.
GET A CLUE!! Are you the only one in America who still believes Duck Cheney's LIE about 9/11 having anything to do with Iraq?
Do you still believe the LIES about Aluminum tubes, Niger yellowcake, meetings in Prague, Bio-moblie labs? Do you even know what I am talking about? Have you not read the Downing Street Memos, the PNAC papers, the books and articles by former CIA, weapons inspectors and even people who were in theBush Adminstration?
Larry Wilkerson, Tyler Drumheller, Richard Clarke, Scott Ritter to start. Try "Web of Deciet".
Ever heard of curveball? Chalabi? Office of Special Plans in DoD set up by Cheney and Runmmy?
This is ALL mainstream public record of FACT.
We were LIED into IRaq for some Neo-Con wet dream vision of a US global dominated new world order. That is why Cheney (and his puppet Bush) will never leave - regardless of the Death and Destruction.
Fascism relies on ignorant, compliant, flag-waving false patriotic citizenry. It worked for Hitler and it has been working well for Cheney and Bush till things didn't go as planned and the America Sheeple started to wake up to the FACT that we were LIED into this DISASTER in Iraq.
GET A CLUE!
4 Choppers Shot Down In 2 Weeks; Insurgents Claim "New Ways" To Fight"
Here's a great new tactic to try:
Elect a new Commande-in-Chief in 2008. Hopefully one who won't need singer-clebrity Cher to tell him that the troops' body armor in Iraq is inadequate.
George ("I got you, babe") Bush wasn't aware of that until Cher raised a fuss about it.