Army Chopper Pilots' Bodies Recovered

The U.S. military said Sunday that the bodies of two American pilots killed when their Apache helicopter crashed near Baghdad were recovered and the aircraft was probably shot down.

The AH-64D Apache Longbow went down about 5:30 p.m. Saturday during combat operations west of Youssifiyah, about 10 miles southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a statement.

"The soldiers' remains were recovered following aircraft recovery operations at the crash site" of the helicopter "which went down due to possible hostile fire," the statement said.

No further details were released, but Youssifiyah is located in the "triangle of death," a religiously mixed area notorious for attacks by Sunni extremists against Shiites traveling between Baghdad and religious shrines south of the capital.

A group called the al-Rashideen Army says it downed the Apache copter. The statement, which could not be verified, was posted on an Islamic Web site.

It was the first loss of a U.S. helicopter since three of them crashed in a 10-day period in January, killing a total of 18 American military personnel. At least two of those helicopters were shot down.