US soldiers killed in helicopter crash

A US army helicopter was shot down near the northern Iraq city of Tikrit today, killing six.

One officer reported hearing two booms and an exchange of fire before the Black Hawk went down.

Soldiers at a nearby army base said it had probably been shot down with a rocketpropelled grenade. The attack took place shortly after it was announced that a US soldier had been killed in an ambush in Mosul.

The helicopter went down this morning on the bank of the Tigris, about half a mile from the US military base, in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces.

Smoke was seen rising from the wreckage and three other US helicopters hovered overhead while the area was sealed off and two injured crew members were helped from the crash site. The attack on the aircraft - which is a front-line utility helicopter designed to carry 11 combatready troops and for use in medical evacuations - comes after 16 US soldiers were killed and 26 were injured when fighters brought down a Chinook helicopter west of Baghdad on Sunday.

It was the single worst loss suffered by US forces since the invasion of Iraq eight months ago.

In the Mosul attack, guerrillas armed with RPGs ambushed a convoy, killing the American soldier and wounding six. A military spokesman said three others were injured later in the morning when a roadside bomb exploded near the Mosul Hotel which is now a military barracks.

The attacks in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, have raised fears that resistance is now spreading from the so-called Sunni Triangle to the west and north of Baghdad. Military chiefs have also expressed concern that many shoulder-fired surfacetoair missiles remain in the hands of guerrillas and are being used to target the US-led coalition.

Today's attacks bring to at least 140 the number of US soldiers killed in action in Iraq since President George Bush declared the conflict over on 1 May.