AL HUSAY, Iraq ? At least 16 Americans, many on their way out of Iraq for military rest and recreation leave, were killed Sunday when their transport helicopter crashed after being hit by what witnesses said was a shoulder-fired missile.
The strike was the deadliest single attack on U.S. forces since the March 19 invasion of Iraq.
The CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed and burned at 9 a.m. Iraq time shortly after departing the Army's Camp Ridgeway, formerly Iraq's Al Taqaddum air base, 35 miles west of Baghdad. At least 20 others in the helicopter were injured.
The U.S. military would not officially disclose the cause of the crash but witnesses and an Army source in Fallujah pointed to a possible rocket-propelled grenade or an SA-7 missile.
The chopper went down en route to Baghdad International Airport as it passed over the wheat fields and groves of date palm trees surrounding this simple, scattered farming village, about 9 miles southeast of Camp Ridgeway.
The attack occurred after loyalists of deposed Iraq leader Saddam Hussein had called for "days of resistance," and U.S. officials warned of intelligence that suggested a marked increase in planned attacks on U.S. military, Iraqi government and civilian targets.
In the town of Abu Gharib, just miles from the crash site, a convoy of unmarked U.S. military vehicles was attacked Sunday morning and set on fire, witnesses said. The American command did not release details of the attacks, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that two of its civilian contract workers were killed.
Another American soldier died from wounds suffered in a roadside bombing outside Baghdad.
The U.S. deaths came after one of the most violent weeks in post-combat Iraq. More than 70 Iraqis and Americans have been killed in eight days of violence including a rocket attack on the Al Rashid hotel, where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and coalition officials were staying, and five suicide bombings.
As of Sunday night, the number of combat deaths suffered by the U.S. military in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major military operations, had risen to at least 139. An additional 113 U.S. servicemen and women died in combat during the invasion phase of the war last spring.
The number of casualties in Sunday's helicopter assault was certain to increase the pressure on the White House and Pentagon to take control of the escalating insurgency against soldiers and civilians in Iraq.
News of the crash spread among U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq, some of them struggling to keep up morale.
"Today was pretty bad," said Army Pfc. Misty Scheirer, 23, of Knoxville, Tenn., an 82nd Airborne Division private on guard at a base near Fallujah. "You get kind of used to it, but of course it brings you down. It just makes it worse that they were almost just out of here."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, appearing on several Sunday morning talk shows, said "Clearly, it's a tragic day for Americans," and that the "work in Iraq is difficult."
"It's a long hard war, and we're going to have tragic days," Rumsfeld said on ABC's "This Week."
A second Chinook helicopter flying with the first was not hit. Those on the stricken aircraft came from a variety of units, an Army spokesman said, and included a number of reservists and possibly some civilians associated with the U.S.-led coalition. The Army's 82nd Airborne Division has troops deployed throughout western Iraq, and Camp Ridgeway is one of its operating bases.
A spokesman at Ft. Carson, Colo., said the Chinooks were carrying soldiers from Ft. Carson, Colo.; Ft. Sill, Okla.; Ft. Campbell, Ky.; and Ft. Hood, Texas.
Lt. Col. Thomas Budzyna said some Fort Carson troops were among the injured but he did not know the units or bases of the other casualties.
"Many were looking forward to a break in the action," Budzyna said. "Unfortunately, they faced something else."
The Pentagon said last week that the number of soldiers leaving Iraq each day for leave in the United States via a transit facility in neighboring Kuwait would be increased from 280 to 480.
Villagers in Al Husay who said they witnessed the attack stated that the first helicopter was traveling swiftly at an altitude of about 300 feet when two missiles were fired at it. The first missile, they said, exploded in the air near the chopper. The second missile struck its tail section.
"It was a missile," said farmer Aref Jassem, 30. "We saw it come up from the land. It hit the first helicopter."
Jassem said people in the village did not approach the downed helicopter "because we were afraid of the soldiers." The Army has recently conducted several late-night searches in village homes, he said.
There were also reports of villagers celebrating the attack.
The crippled, twin-bladed helicopter then circled once, they said, and landed in a level field near an elevated dirt road, slamming hard onto the ground in flames. About 30 minutes later, an American military quick-reaction force was on the scene and spent more than two hours wading through the gruesome scene gathering bodies and evidence. Soldiers would not let reporters enter the crash site.
An Army spokesman at St. Mere base north of Fallujah said the helicopter was downed by a shoulder-held weapon. The Iraqi Army had a significant stockpile of Soviet made SA-7 GRAIL shoulder-held missiles. The U.S. military has acquired hundreds of the surface-to-air missiles through its buyback program, but has been unable to locate thousands of others. Several previously have been fired at U.S. aircraft, without incident.
A military spokesman said witnesses reported seeing missile trails but that an investigation would take place to determine the cause of the crash, according to a Defense Department Web site.
The Chinook was not the first U.S. helicopter lost in Iraq. On Oct. 25, opposition gunmen downed an Army Black Hawk near Tikrit with a rocket-propelled grenade. In August, an Apache helicopter's systems failed, the military said, and it crashed north of Tikrit.
Although anti-U.S. attacks have increased in number and intensity, Paul Bremer, Washington's special envoy in Iraq, said Saturday that the United States would remain in force here until a peaceful transfer of power can be made.
But Bremer added that American forces would accelerate the training of Iraqi police and military in an effort to more of police and security duties under Iraqi control.
"One of the biggest advantages of getting Iraqis more involved in their own security is that the Iraqis will be better able to tell who the bad guys are," Bremer said.
American officials believe the majority of the attacks are orchestrated by those who remain loyal to Saddam, whose whereabouts are unknown, and his ruling Baath Party.
Al Husay's proximity to Camp Ridgeway means that helicopters fly over the village several times a day. Villagers said the area was not friendly to U.S. forces, but that Army Humvees frequently pass through on the main road and that none had been attacked.
Last month, troops angered villagers when they raided homes, removing an influential tribal sheik and the local religious leader, whom villagers say haven't been heard from since. U.S. forces did rebuild a nearby school, but didn't deliver on promises to restore electricity, vital to irrigation pumps that move water into fields, residents assert.
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