A US UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq late last night, killing all people on board, the US military said today.
Four crew and eight passengers were listed as being on board, the US military said in a statement, adding that the cause of the crash was under investigation.
The helicopter went down in a sparsely populated area 12 km (7.5 miles) east of the town of Tal Afar shortly before midnight.
It had been flying between bases in northern Iraq when communications were lost with the aircraft, the statement said. An immediate search and rescue operation was launched from nearby military installations.
Elsewhere five US Marines were in separate attacks in western Iraq.
Three Marines were killed while conducting combat operations near the Iraqi city of Falluja today. All three were killed by small arms fire.
The other two were killed yesterday in two separate bomb attacks on their patrols in villages near Falluja.
One died near the village of al-Karma and the other near Ferris.