Guerrillas shot down a US transport helicopter near Baghdad yesterday carrying troops on a recreation break, killing at least 15 in the bloodiest attack on US occupiers since Saddam Hussein was overthrown.
The crippled Chinook helicopter came down in farmland near the village of Baisa, south of Falluja, a stronghold of anti-US resistance 50km west of Baghdad.
"Fifteen were killed in action and 21 wounded," said US army Colonel William Darley.
US military helicopters circled the area. Other helicopters and US Humvee vehicles were parked around the wreckage.
A US spokesman said two Chinooks had been heading for Baghdad airport with troops on a rest and recreation break. He said the downed helicopter, carrying 30 people, including five crew, had been "shot down by an unknown weapon."
A witness in Falluja, Dawoud Suleiman, said: "There were two American helicopters. They fired a missile at one and missed, and then they hit the other, which crashed and caught fire."
Some Iraqis were jubilant.
"The Americans are pigs. We will hold a celebration because this helicopter went down -- a big celebration," said wheat farmer Saadoun Jaralla near the crash site. "The Americans are enemies of mankind."
US troops told journalists to leave the area and confiscated their film as another military medical helicopter with a red cross sign on its side landed, sending up clouds of dust from the dry scrubland.
It was the third time guerrillas had brought down a US military helicopter since US President George W. Bush declared major combat over in Iraq on May 1.
Bush himself had vowed on Saturday to stand firm and said leaving Iraq prematurely would strengthen the "terrorists" who he blamed for recent deadly suicide attacks.
In Falluja, residents said a roadside bomb had hit a convoy of US soldiers in civilian vehicles. At least one vehicle was ablaze at the scene, where crowds gathered to celebrate and shout anti-US slogans. Television pictures showed a gleeful youth wearing a US Army helmet. Others danced on wreckage.
Before the helicopter attack, 123 US soldiers had died in hostilities in Iraq in the past six months, including one killed by an overnight roadside bomb blast in Baghdad and two killed by a bomb in the northern city of Mosul the day before.
Several of Iraq's neighbors were holding security talks in Damascus over the weekend, mindful of recent American assertions that Syria and Iran are not doing enough to prevent foreign militants crossing into Iraq.
But Iraq's interim foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, said he would not accept a belated invitation to attend.
Officials at his ministry said Syria had been reluctant to invite him because of misgivings about being seen to recognize Iraq's US-backed interim government.
"It's impossible for us to make it, and that was their intention," Zebari said yesterday. "We don't even know what the agenda is."
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