Baghdad, Iraq – The U.S. command has ordered changes in flight operations after four helicopters were shot down in the past 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 claims by insurgents 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 Iraqi lives in the past week. At least 103 people were killed or found dead Sunday, most of them in Baghdad, police reported.
A deadly truck bombing Saturday in a Baghdad market and Maj. Gen. William Caldwell’s admission of militants’ success against U.S. air power told the story of a deepening crisis, even as Iraqi officials prepare to implement their new security plan and additional American troops arrive.
Tactics being adjusted
Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes of three Army helicopters and one private craft were incomplete but that “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.
“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.”
He 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 of the helicopters 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, said Sunni insurgents had received shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and that “we are going to surprise” U.S. forces.
He did not say when or how the missiles were obtained.
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 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 proved 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.
In a roundtable discussion with reporters on a military base near the Baghdad airport, U.S. military officials announced that an Iraqi command structure for the Baghdad Security Plan would be in place today.
The plan will begin small and slowly escalate, said Col. Doug lass Heckman, senior adviser to the 9th Iraqi Army Division, which operates east of the Tigris River where the sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City is located.
“It’s going to be different than anything we’ve done before,” Heckman said. “There are going to be a lot more boots on the ground, a lot more integration.”
Public anger over Saturday’s market attack, which killed more than 130 people and injured hundreds, welled up during a meeting Sunday between a delegation of Sadriyah residents and Iraqi parliament members. The delegation demanded that the government implement the new security plan quickly to end the bloodshed.
Caldwell, the military spokesman, warned that the upcoming crackdown would not improve security overnight.
“People must be patient. Give the government and coalition forces a chance to fully implement it,” he said. “It will take some time for additional Iraqi and U.S. forces to be deployed.”
McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.
