Wednesday, August 09, 2006

U.S. Chopper Crashes in Iraq; Soldiers Find Weapons Cache

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2006 – A U.S. Army helicopter crashed yesterday during an orientation flight over Iraq's Anbar province, officials said today. The UH-60 Blackhawk attached to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing was carrying six coalition troops and has been located, according to a Multinational Corps Iraq press release.

Four of the six passengers were recovered and are in stable condition. A search-and-rescue effort is under way to find the two missing crewmembers. "We are using all the resources available to find our missing comrades," Marine spokesman Maj. Riccoh Player said. The helicopter crash doesn't appear to be the work of enemy forces, officials said.

In other news, U.S. soldiers found an enemy weapons cache and a terrorist training video during an Aug. 6 patrol southwest of Baghdad. Soldiers from Company D, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, found a firearm during a search of a suspicious vehicle. The vehicle's passengers then tipped off the soldiers to check out a nearby house.

Upon searching the house, the soldiers found a 9 mm pistol, a rifle, an M-14 automatic rifle magazine with ammunition, and 40 compact discs containing apparent terrorist recruitment footage of U.S. forces being attacked. The soldiers detained six people at the site.

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