U.S. helicopter goes down near air base west of Baghdad, military says

[Teaser]

Source: AP

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter was conducting a routine post-maintenance test flight when it went down near Taqaddum air base, said 1st Lt. Shawn Mercer, a Marine spokesman.

He said emergency response crews had sealed off the site and the cause was being investigated. The e-mailed statement provided no information about how many people were on the helicopter or their status.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/14/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Helicopter-Down.php

---

Bad day in Iraq.

Gonna have to ignore this one in Petraeus' report.

[CoffeeCat]

1. Will this incident be

spun into part of that sparkly progress report that Patraeus will be
giving in September?

[lyonn]

2. Troops and equipment worn smooth out!

Can we leave now? They don't want us there. We don't want to be there.

Congress needs to come up with a plan to keep george worried about HIMSELF and keep him from doing any more damage to us and the world. Impeachment would be nice, but, we got this election to win. So, he needs to be hacked on in an area that is personal, 'cause this admin. is all about what george wants and thinks. How about the tax dollars that he is saving us from paying so we can spend that on $4.00 milk? He has approved outrageous contracts for the WAR. Then the contractors lose the money?? Ask him who is going to pay for that bill. That gets most people haired up, THEIR money being pissed off.

[Marrah_G]

3. These reports make my heart stop

My brother travels between ports and airbases throughout Iraq. Roadside IEDs and Helicopter crashes scare the crap out of me. I just tell myself if it was him I'd already know. But those first few irrational thoughts are killers.

[rodeodance]

4. Iraq's deputy oil minister, four others kidnapped from government compound

Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Iraq's deputy oil minister, four others kidnapped from government compound
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2953332#2953332
2953332, Iraq's deputy oil minister, four others kidnapped from government compound
Posted by Scurrilous on Tue Aug-14-07 12:28 PM

Source: International Herald Tribune

<snip>

"More than 50 gunmen dressed in Iraqi security forces uniforms and using 17 official vehicles broke into an Oil Ministry compound in eastern Baghdad Tuesday and abducted a senior deputy of the oil minister, and four other officials, a ministry spokesman and police said.

Abdel-Jabar al-Wagaa, the senior assistant to Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, was spirited away by the gunmen in what were believed to be military vehicles, said Assem Jihad, the Oil Ministry spokesman.

An Interior Ministry official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to release the information, said a top official in the State Oil Marketing Organization and three directors general in the operation also were kidnapped.

The official said five bodyguards were wounded in the raid on the State Oil Marketing Organization complex on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad."



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/14/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Kidnapping.php

[rodeodance]

5. Pilots Say Missile Was Fired at Airliner in Northern Iraq

Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Pilots Say Missile Was Fired at Airliner in Northern Iraq
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2953269#2953269
2953269, Pilots Say Missile Was Fired at Airliner in Northern Iraq
Posted by sabra on Tue Aug-14-07 11:31 AM

Source: NYTimes

A European civil aviation authority said yesterday that it was reviewing security conditions at airports in northern Iraq after two pilots reported that their passenger airliner had been attacked by ground fire last week while taking off from Sulaimaniya.

The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by Nordic Airways and carrying more than 120 people, was not struck and continued to Stockholm.

But its pilots have told investigators that they saw the flash and light of a missile rise from the ground, arc near the plane and then drop away as they climbed between 3,000 and 6,000 feet, said Anders Lundblad, a spokesman for Luftfartsstyrelsen, the civil aviation authority in Sweden, where Nordic Airways is registered.

...

Two Swedish aviation companies have operated regular routes serving Sulaimaniya and Erbil, the international airports in northern Iraq. On Friday, all Swedish flights to the region were suspended indefinitely.

...

Brig. Sarkawt Hassan Jalal, the director of security in the Sulaimaniya region, said local investigators had found no evidence of a missile shot. “There was not an attack, not even from the bullet of a pistol,” he said by telephone. “No rocket, not a thing. All of this is just propaganda.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/middleeast/14missile.html

[rodeodance]

6. Ten killed in bomb attack on Iraq bridge - police

Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Ten killed in bomb attack on Iraq bridge - police
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2952977#2952977
2952977, Ten killed in bomb attack on Iraq bridge - police
Posted by Eugene on Tue Aug-14-07 05:33 AM

Source: Reuters

Ten killed in bomb attack on Iraq bridge - police
14 Aug 2007 10:42:48 GMT

BAGHDAD, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A suicide truck bomb killed
10 people and wounded six at a bridge linking Baghdad to
northern Iraq on Tuesday, police said. Police said the
explosion happened in the middle of the bridge and it
collapsed, sending three civilian cars into a branch of the
Tigris river.


Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14148404.htm


(Original Report)

Source: Reuters

Fuel truck bomb damages Iraq bridge, kills 2
Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:31AM EDT

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide truck bomb killed two people,
wounded five and badly damaged a bridge linking Baghdad to
northern Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi security forces said.

Part of the bridge collapsed in the attack near Taiji, in
which a fuel tanker was used.

One side of the bridge, which links the capital to northern
Iraq, was badly damaged in a previous bombing on May 11
and traffic was using the remaining lanes when the bomber
struck.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTAI43256920070814

[Eugene]

7. Reuters: Five U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq helicopter crash

Source: Reuters

Five U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq helicopter crash
14 Aug 2007 19:05:35 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Five U.S. service personnel
were killed when a military transport helicopter crashed
during a routine flight west of Baghdad on Tuesday, the
U.S. military said.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed near the U.S.
military's al-Taqaddum air base close to Falluja, 50 km
(30 miles) west of Baghdad.

Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14838872.htm

---

Original headline: FIVE U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN HELICOPTER CRASH IN IRAQ - U.S. MILITARY

[tabasco]

8. Breaking on CNN: Is Obama black enough?

No mention of the tragedy yet on "the most trusted name in news."