lost US helicopter probably shot down

[tocqueville]

No further details were released on the helicopter crash, but Youssifiyah is located in the "triangle of death," a religiously mixed area notorious for attacks by Sunni extremists against Shiites traveling between Baghdad and religious shrines south of the capital.

It was the first loss of a U.S. helicopter since three of them crashed in a 10-day period in January, killing a total of 18 American military personnel. At least two of those helicopters were shot down.

The U.S. command also said three more soldiers had been killed — two by a roadside bomb late Saturday in central Baghdad and another from non-hostile related injuries suffered near the northern city of Kirkuk.

The five U.S. deaths brought to at least 2,333 the number of American service members killed since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060403/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq