Blackhawk Down (in Iraq, today)

[WilliamPitt]

U.S. Helicopter Shot Down Near Tikrit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

October 25, 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Helicopter.html

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) -- A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down Saturday by ground fire near Tikrit, a center of Iraq's anti-U.S. insurgency, U.S. officials said. The U.S. command in Baghdad said five soldiers were injured.

Two helicopters were flying when the second one in the formation was hit by a projectile, believed to be a rocket propelled grenade, witnesses said. An AP reporter at a U.S. base several hundred yards away saw the striken aircraft spin out of control in the air then fall to the ground.

The downed craft could later be seen, engulfed in flames and lying amid brush in a field as a plume of thick black smoke rose into the sky. The second copter hovered overhead.

It was the second time a U.S. helicopter has been downed by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1. The last copter to be shot down was in June.

...more...

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Somehow I don't think Ridley Scott will make a movie about this.

nt

[Sagan]

2. somehow, I don't think "5 wounded" is the extent of the casualties

Certainly not from the incident described...

[sistersofmercy]

3. What a sad horrible mess the evil little simpleton has created!

Some mornings I still wake up in disbelief that our troops are actually in Iraq. I still can not fathom the selection of the annoying runt, it's like a reoccuring bad dream. I swear if that little prick is selected again next year I'm leaving the country.

[U2Shark]

4. "Rocket propelled grenades"

Again. It is always a rocket powered grenade.

[Catch22Dem]

5. They have a lot of RPGs

They're also easy to use and quite effective.

[ShaneGR]

7. Simple maintance, easy to aim and fire

Plentiful all over Iraq. In fact, I would be willing to bet there are thousands of those things flowing in from Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.

[JanMichael]

10. It seems like they've got RPG's all over the place.

And apparently there are plenty of people who know how to use them too.

[Don_G]

6. Another Middle Eastern Wedding?

Odd how ShrubCo explains away the casualities and the missing 4 Billion like it was never their fault in the first place. :tinfoilhat:

[opihimoimoi]

8. How Ironic we made most, if not all, of them RPGs

Someday, some mother or father of a KIA that works(ed) in a MIL IND COMPLX making these weapons will feel the pain.... knowing one of the weapons they made killed one of their OWN.

Damn.

[nostamj]

9. i am so afraid

that a really MAJOR attack will occur soon.

something that will truly SHOCK and AWE that part of the population who will not face the horror that bushco has created and only wants to expand endlessly

i don't want it to happen, but it makes sense from their point of view.

they want the US out, we want the US out.

god, shakespeare didn't know perverted a 'tangled webs' could be weaved by deceit.

who could have imagined the deceit of bushco???

[dansolo]

11. Too many witnesses to claim it was a training accident

There were so many "training accidents" early on, that I was I highly suspicious that they were clssifying them as "accidents" in order to give the impression that the enemy was incapable of countering our attacks. Maybe there were so many witnesses that they couldn't claim it was an accident this time.