Pentagon releases Iraq copter crash details (hostile fire not ruled out)

[sabra]

http://www.king5.com/sharedcontent/iraq/topstories/011106ccjccwIraqCrashDetails.6935b5f1.html

Pentagon releases Iraq copter crash details

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Four of the eight U.S. soldiers killed in the crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter in northern Iraq last weekend were members of the Alaska National Guard, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

One of the Guard soldiers was a female officer whose husband also is deployed in Iraq, her mother said.

...

Also killed in the crash Saturday near Tal Afar were four civilian passengers. The State Department said two of them, whom it did not identify by name, were police liaison officers employed by contractor Dyncorp International as part of the State Department's police training program. It had no immediate information on the other two civilians.


Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said investigators have reached no conclusions on the cause of the crash. He said bad weather was reported in the area at the time but he said it was not yet clear whether this was a cause. He said hostile fire had not yet been ruled out.

[leftchick]

1. Sunni groups claimed responsibilty for downing it the day after...

Juan Cole printed it. Zip in the M$M about it.

[sabra]

2. I am shocked

:sarcasm:

[daleo]

3. This is the usual pattern

The admission that it was hostile fire generally takes a week or so, nowadays.