A US army Black Hawk helicopter has crashed near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing six people on board. US soldiers nearby reported hearing two explosions- they say the aircraft was probably shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. As Apache helicopters scoured the crash site, 175 kilometres north of Baghdad, looking for guerrilla fighters, the US military said two soldiers had been killed in separate incidents in the northern city of Mosul.

One died in an ambush today and another in a bomb attack yesterday morning. Thursday also saw a memorial ceremony for those killed in the worst single attack against American forces.
Troops gathered at a desert camp in western Iraq to remember 16 colleagues who died last Sunday.

The victims were among dozens of US soldiers travelling in a Chinook helicopter to Baghdad from where they were scheduled to fly home on leave. The helicopter was shot down near Fallujah. Amid the mounting US death toll, officers hope to cut the total number of soldiers in Iraq from 130,000 to 100,000 by next May. Meanwhile the Turkish government has dropped plans to send thousands of troops to help secure Iraq.

Turkey's parliament approved the deployment last month but the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council objected, saying it did not want troops from neighbouring countries on Iraqi soil.


[Source: Euronews.net]