BAGHDAD — An Iraqi military helicopter crashed in northern Iraq, killing a U.S. soldier and seven other people, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
The announcement came on a day of little violence in Iraq. The country’s president announced he would visit neighboring Turkey, and the prime minister called for the release of a kidnapped Chal dean Catholic archbishop.
The Russian-made M-17 helicopter was found Tuesday south of Beiji, 90 miles south of Mosul, a day after it was reported missing. Iraq’s Defense Ministry said the aircraft got caught in bad weather.
All eight people aboard the copter died, including the U.S. soldier, said military spokesman Lt. Michael Street.
An Iraqi air force official said six Iraqis and two foreigners were aboard. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information, did not give the nationality of the other foreigner. Street said he was unaware that another foreigner was aboard the helicopter.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it killed three extremists in an effort to capture an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in eastern Baghdad and detained two al-Qaeda in Iraq suspects in raids Saturday.
On Tuesday, Iraqi police arrested eight alleged al-Qaeda members in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, local police Col. Mazin Younis said.
A separate police unit led a joint operation with U.S. forces in Wasit province, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, that netted 26 suspected Shiite extremists, the military said. The raid also uncovered stores of explosives, said the regional police chief, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Hamid Faisal al-Emarah.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered his security officials to “work hard” to find a Chaldean Catholic archbishop who was kidnapped in Mosul. Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized and three of his companions were killed Friday when gunmen attacked them soon after he left Mass, the latest in what church members called a series of attacks against Iraq’s small Christian community.
Meanwhile, President Jalal Talabani’s office announced that he will pay an official visit to Turkey in the next few days. No exact date was set.
Turkish troops withdrew from northern Iraq on Feb. 29, ending an eight-day incursion against Kurdish PKK rebels using bases in northern Iraq to launch hit-and-run attacks in Turkey. Iraqi authorities have said they do not support the PKK but objected to Turkey’s military action.
Also Tuesday, the State Department bowed to congressional pressure and agreed to retain nine inspectors in Iraq to oversee reconstruction, health and other assistance programs. The group of U.S. Agency for International Development inspectors based in Baghdad had faced elimination, reduction or transfer to Jordan, Egypt or Germany.
