|
More on Sea Knight crash
Edited for length and re-odered.Eight British and four American troops have been killed in a helicopter crash as the ground invasion of Iraq got under way. The British marines from 3 Commando Brigade died when a US CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed in Kuwait several miles south of the Iraqi border, in what is believed to have been an accident. The deaths are the first confirmed casualties among US and UK troops since the war on Iraq began. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said those who had lost their lives and their loved ones were "uppermost in our hearts at the moment" and the tragic event demonstrated the bravery of "our troops". An investigation into the crash is under way. Lieutenant Colonel Ben Curry, a Royal Marines spokesman in Kuwait, said: "There were eight UK servicemen from 3 Commando Brigade and four US air crew. None survived the crash." Officials said the crash happened at about 0300 local time south of the southern Iraqi city of Umm Qasr. The BBC's Nick Childs, at the Pentagon, said it was thought the helicopter had been returning from a mission over the Iraq border, but "precisely what it was doing is unclear". Details of the casualties were being withheld until next of kin are informed. The US Marines use the Sea Knight, a helicopter with two large rotors like a Chinook, to fly troops from ships at sea or base camps to forward positions. Colonel Walter Boyne, a former US Airforce pilot, told the BBC he thought the crash was probably an accident, caused by the age of the Vietnam-era aircraft â in service for almost 40 years. The US Navy and Marines grounded all 291 Sea Knight helicopters in August after an inspection of one helicopter in North Carolina found a crack in a rotor assembly. "I just wish that we had been vigilant enough and foreseeing enough to go ahead and re-equip with helicopters," Mr Boyne said.
Overnight British Royal Marine commandos took the strategic al-Faw peninsula in south-eastern Iraq in an air and sea assault. Other British troops helped US soldiers secure oilfields to the west of the southern port city of Basra. But as British troops moved north towards the port of Basra on Friday they faced opposition at the key oil shipping terminal Umm Qasr, according to Defence Minister Geoff Hoon. He told Channel 4: "Our forces are in fact already facing some stern resistance at Umm Qasr as I speak. "The Iraqis are not simply giving up in the way that some commentators have suggested that the would. And our forces are fighting." Kuwaiti news agencies had reported the western forces had captured Umm Qasr although Iraqi television and denied this. Group Captain Al Lockwood, spokesman for British forces in the Gulf, told the BBC: "There has been light resistance but no UK casualties." RAF Tornado GR4 and Harrier jets flew sorties from Kuwait to support US ground troops in the Basra operation, as well as other operations within Iraq. While some ground units had met little resistance, soldiers of the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were pinned down by Iraqi anti-tank rockets and small arms fire just yards after crossing the border, according to the BBC's Adam Mynott. He said the convoy he was in had been forced to retreat and it was unclear whether one vehicle had been hit. "We're now taking cover behind a sand bank," he said. "There is sustained gunfire coming from Iraqi positions... Resistance is stronger than had been expected."
Posted by: Bulldog 2003-03-21 |
||
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=11602 |