18 Hurt In Iraq Copter 'Hard Landing'
A U.S. Marine helicopter carrying 21 people made a hard landing in volatile Anbar province on Monday, injuring 18, the military said.
It was the third U.S. military aircraft to go down in the province in two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government said its security forces are doing everything they can to protect victims of sectarian violence in Baghdad, including families that are being driven from their homes in mixed neighborhoods of Shiites and Sunni Arabs. Citing one example of those efforts, Mohammed al-Askari, the spokesman of the Defense Ministry, said Iraqi soldiers rushed to Ghazaliyah, a primarily Sunni area of west Baghdad, on Monday morning to free 23 Iraqis right after they were taken hostage at a fake checkpoint.
"We killed one terrorist and arrested four others," al-Askari said at a news conference.
But sectarian violence continued in the capital.
Three explosions struck within a span of two hours on Monday morning, police said, after a roadside bomb in the capital killed three American soldiers and wounded two on a late-night combat patrol.
The soldiers were killed when the blast hit their military combat patrol in northern Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Insurgents often plant such explosives and hide nearby to set them off with hidden electrical cords or cell phone devices as coalition forces pass by in convoys.
The three deaths raised to 46 the number of American troops who have died this month. At least 2,934 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In other developments:
At 12 noon Monday, a Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter made a hard landing while conducting a routine passenger and cargo flight, and the U.S. command said enemy action did not appear to be the cause of the problem.
Eighteen people were injured, including nine who were quickly treated and returned to duty, the U.S. command said in a brief statement. It did not provide the exact location in Anbar province where the hard landing occurred, saying it was being investigated..
On Dec. 3, a Sea Knight helicopter carrying 16 Marines went down in a lake in Anbar, killing four of them. The twin-rotor CH-46 helicopter from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing made the emergency landing near the shore of Lake Qadisiyah "in which the pilots maintained control of the aircraft the entire time," the military said.
It said the helicopter had experienced mechanical problems and was not hit by gunfire.
Twelve passengers survived; a Marine was pulled from the water but attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. The bodies of three missing Marines were found in a subsequent search, the military said.
On Nov. 27, a U.S. Air Force fighter jet crashed in Anbar province in a field that was 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing its lone pilot. The military said it was unlikely that the jet was shot down. Suspected Iraqi insurgents reached the site before the military did and the body of the pilot was never recovered.
Many of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgent groups are based in Anbar, a province the size of North Carolina that stretches west from Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Recently, fresh attacks against Sunnis in Hurriyah, a mixed neighborhood of northwestern Baghdad, have raised new fears of an organized campaign by Shiite militants to drive Sunnis from the area and strengthen militia control of the capital's north. Witnesses say scores of Sunni families have been fleeing the Hurriyah neighborhood in recent weeks, and Sunni organizations claim that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and police have done little to stop the violence.
Iraqi commanders have denied the charge and said they are encouraging Sunnis to remain in Hurriyah and assuring them of their safety. Still, the authorities are clearly struggling to curb the violence.
Hurriyah was relatively calm Monday, two days after about 600 Iraqi soldiers were sent there in response to clashes in which police said at least two people were killed and two others wounded.
Asked about the area, al-Askari said: "We can't deny the presence of the outlaws in Hurriyah who have managed to intimidate residents and force some of them out of their houses. But Hurriyah isn't the only area where this is happening in Baghdad. It's going on in other neighborhoods, too, and all Iraqis are being targeted, not only one sect."
He said five Iraqi army companies are stationed in Hurriyah to protect all its residents.
"Some people are using places such as Hurriyah to support their false claim that the government and its security forces are incapable or unwilling to stop such violence," he said.