Baghdad, Iraq – A U.S. Apache attack helicopter crashed today north of Baghdad, killing both pilots, a day after a series of suicide attacks left nearly three dozen people dead in northern Iraq.
The AH-64 crashed in Mishahda, 20 miles north of the capital, and was in flames on the ground, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said. Witness Mohammed Naji told Associated Press Television News he saw two helicopters flying toward Mishahda when “a rocket hit one of them and destroyed it completely in the air.” The two pilots were killed in the crash, which is under investigation, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division.
Heavy gunfire was heard at the time of the crash and shots also were heard afterward, the AP reporter said.
In Baghdad, two people were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the northern Azamiyah neighborhood, police 1st Lt. Mohammed al-Hayali said.
The attack came hours after three suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, an army base and a hospital around Mosul on Sunday, killing 33 people in a setback to rebuilding the northern city’s police force that was riven by intimidation from insurgents seven months ago.
The group al-Qaida in Iraq, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attacks in Iraq’s third-largest city. The claim, which was made on an Internet site used by militants, could not be verified.
The relentless carnage has killed at least 1,338 people since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-dominated government. With the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency targeting the Shiite majority, the wave of killings has raised fears of a possible civil war.
The violence has continued despite crackdowns and U.S.-led offensives on insurgent strongholds, showing that militants have the depth and resilience to pin down a large U.S. military contingent as well as a fledgling Iraqi security force. Several of the campaigns have targeted foreign fighters along the Syrian border.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said it may take as long as 12 years to defeat the insurgents. He said Iraq’s security forces will have to finish the job because American and foreign troops will have left the country by then.
Rumsfeld also acknowledged that U.S. officials have met with insurgents in Iraq, after a British newspaper reported two recent meetings took place at a villa north of Baghdad.
Insurgent commanders “apparently came face to face” with four American officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a villa near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, The Sunday Times reported.
When asked Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about the two meetings, Rumsfeld said, “I think there have probably been many more than that.” He insisted the talks did not involve negotiations with al-Zarqawi and other suspected terrorists but were rather facilitating efforts by the Shiite-led government to reach out to minority Sunni Arabs. Three insurgent groups denied that meetings took place.
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said today it was sensible for Britain and its allies to engage elements of the insurgency to promote stability.
“It’s our job politically to pull as many people into the political process. That is an engagement not just by the Iraqi government, but by the Americans, ourselves, others. Everybody,” Blair told a news conference.
“We are not compromising our position with terrorism or any of the rest of it. We are simply trying, perfectly sensibly, to pull as many people into the democratic fold as possible.” Former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said militants crossing into Iraq from Syria are not backed by the government in Damascus.
“There are infiltrators, but that does not necessarily mean that they are supported by the Syrian government,” he said today in Egypt. “(The infiltrators) are misusing Syria’s hospitality and cross into Iraq.” Allawi said Syrian and Iraqi officials were discussing setting up a buffer zone along the border to stop infiltration.
Last week, the United States and Iraq reiterated that Syria was not doing enough to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq. Syria rejected the allegations, arguing it is impossible to seal its 360-mile border with Iraq.
At least 18 people were killed in attacks elsewhere in Iraq on Sunday, including a U.S. soldier whose convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and six Iraqi soldiers who were gunned down outside their base north of the capital.
On today, police detained 48 suspected insurgents in Iskandariyah, Jibbala and Haswa in northern Hillah, police Capt.
Muthana Khalid said. The three-day raid, which ended early today, took place south of Baghdad, part of “Operation Lightning.” Police also seized weapons and a potential car bomb.
The attacks in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, began early Sunday when a suicide bomber with explosives hidden under watermelons in a pickup truck slammed into a downtown police station near a market. U.S. Army Capt. Mark Walter said 10 policemen and two civilians were killed.
Less than two hours later, a suicide bomber blew himself outside an Iraqi army base on Mosul’s outskirts, killing 16 people, Walter said. Most were civilian workers, he said.
A third attacker walked into Mosul’s Jumhouri Teaching Hospital in the afternoon and blew himself up, killing five policemen. The blast blew a hole in the building and injured some police officers outside. Smoke and flames then poured out.
Some of Iraq’s most feared terror groups – including the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and al-Qaida in Iraq – operate in Mosul.
