A US Apache helicopter went down during an air operation against elite Iraqi Republican Guard units near Baghdad today and its two-man crew is missing in action, US commanders in Qatar said.
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An Iraqi man waves his AK-47 rifle in front of an Apache military helicopter in the Hindiya district, 120 km south-west of Baghdad.
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"The fate of the crew is uncertain right now," Army GeneralTommy Franks, who is engineering the US-British invasion of Iraq, told a briefing at allied command headquarters.He said the downed chopper was one of between 30 and 40helicopters taking part in an operation, which according toBrigadier General Vincent Brooks targeted Republican Guard units near the Iraqi capital.
"During that attack, there was an attack helicopter down,"Brooks said, adding that all other aircraft returned safely from the mission.Military analysts expect the Republican Guard to mount aspirited defence of the Iraqi capital and President Saddam Hussein, whose ouster is the goal of US and British land forces moving north to Baghdad from Kuwait.
Franks described the air campaign against the Guard to date as "very positive.""They have been hit. They will continue to be hit at points, places and times that make sense to us," he said.Iraqi state television earlier in the day aired film footage showing a US Apache helicopter that had been shot down over Karbala, south of Baghdad.The aircraft was apparently intact but the TV gave no indication of the whereabouts of the crew nor when the helicopter had been shot down.The television pictures from Karbala, a Shiite Muslim pilgrimage city some 80 kilometers south of Baghdad, showed the aircraft surrounded by Iraqi civilians, dancing and shouting slogans glorifying President Saddam Hussein and brandishing Kalashnikov rifles.The report said the helicopter had been brought down by rifle fire from a farmer, a claim denied here by Franks.The Apache AH-64 is the US Army's most advanced helicopter and is designed to attack armoured vehicles.