US Helicopter Opens Fire in Iraq

[Ghost in the Machine]

US Helicopter Opens Fire in Iraq
Published: 10/31/07, 12:05 AM EDT
By KIM GAMEL

BAGHDAD (AP) - U.S. helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came under attack southeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, and Iraqi police said three officers were killed and one wounded in the strike.

The fighting occurred near Salman Pak, a predominantly Sunni area that has been the subject of a U.S. military campaign aimed at routing insurgents from rural strongholds and disrupting the flow of weapons to the capital.

Ground forces called for air support after coming under small-arms fire near the city, some 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information hasn't been formally released.

A U.S.-Iraqi joint security station in the area had come under fire three times earlier in the day, the official said.

A local policeman, who also declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said three officers were killed and one wounded when an Iraqi patrol vehicle was hit in the airstrike.

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