Baghdad, Iraq – An Army helicopter crashed in bad weather in northern Iraq shortly before midnight Saturday, killing all 12 Americans on board, military authorities reported Sunday, and five Marines were killed in action in separate incidents over the past two days.
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was flying between bases with another helicopter when communications were lost, the military said in a statement. A search mission found the helicopter’s wreckage at noon Sunday in a sparsely populated area about 7 miles east of the northern city of Tall Afar, near the Syrian border.
Bad weather was thought to have played at least some role in the crash, but by Sunday evening the military had not ruled out any possible cause or said whether hostile fire was involved.
The crash came as the military reported that five Marines were killed in fighting with insurgents west of Baghdad over the weekend. Combined with the deaths of 11 U.S. servicemen Thursday, the fatalities marked one of the deadliest four-day stretches for the military since the fall of Baghdad in 2003.
U.S. military spokesmen would not confirm whether all of those killed in the Black Hawk helicopter crash were U.S. service members but did say all aboard were Americans. The military usually identifies the armed-forces branch of fallen service members, opening the possibility that at least some of the passengers were government contractors or working with intelligence services.
Sandstorms and swirling sand caused by bad weather can disorient helicopter pilots, especially when they are operating in the dark and using night-vision goggles. Military experts have said such storms can lead crews to momentarily lose their ability to distinguish up from down.
The military said the helicopter had been flying in support of Task Force Band of Brothers, a unit of the coalition forces that is largely made up of troops from the 101st Airborne Division based in Fort Campbell, Ky.
The five Marines were killed in several attacks in central Iraq, the military reported. Three of the Marines were killed by gunfire Sunday morning in separate attacks in the city of Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, the military reported. The two others were killed when their vehicles were hit by roadside bombs Saturday in the towns of Karmah and Ferris near Fallujah, the military reported.
Military authorities would not release the names of any of the 17 Americans killed or provide more details on the circumstances of their deaths until relatives could be notified.
Meanwhile, efforts in Baghdad to form a national government continued following parliamentary elections Dec. 15. In the latest development, a coalition of Kurdish parties announced that it would nominate Jalal Talabani, the country’s president, to a new term.
It was unclear whether Talabani would accept the nomination as Iraq’s head of state, given that he has lobbied for a bigger role in running the country.
“The acceptance or the rejection of the president to this post is up to him personally,” Kamran Qaradaghi, Talabani’s spokesman, said in a statement. “President Talabani has stressed many times that he must get more powers to accept this post.”
Sunni Arab and Shiite parties greeted the nomination coolly. Bahaa al-Araji, a member of the United Iraqi Alliance, a group of Shiite parties, said his group respected the decision but would prefer to have a Sunni Arab in the job.
Also in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a predawn raid Sunday on the Umm al- Qura mosque, which serves as the headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, a leading Sunni religious group. The association said the raid was a violation of a holy place.
Muthana Harith Dhari, a member of the group, said at a news conference Sunday that U.S. troops had detained five people and ransacked the mosque’s library and computer stations looking for information.
“We call it a battle, to describe the kind of attack against the mosque and the headquarters of the association,” Dhari said.
While the association has regularly inveighed against the U.S. presence in Iraq, it also has often issued statements condemning suicide bombings, assassinations and kidnappings carried out by insurgents across the country.
Also in Baghdad, a French engineer taken hostage last month was released. The French government said Bernard Planche would return to France soon and that French President Jacques Chirac was “delighted by the happy outcome.”
Planche, who worked for a nongovernmental organization, was kidnapped Dec. 5 while traveling to work at a water plant in Baghdad.
A video was later released showing him sitting between two armed men who denounced the “illegal French presence” in Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of French troops from the country.
The French government, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, has not sent forces to Iraq.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
