Five civilians died Tuesday in the Baghdad crash of a helicopter owned by the private security company Blackwater USA, according to a U.S. military official.In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi defense official said the private helicopter that crashed was shot down.
The Iraqi official, who would not allow use of his name, said a gunman with a PKC machine gun downed the small helicopter Tuesday afternoon over the heavily Sunni Fadhil neighborhood in north-central Baghdad.
Another U.S. military official, in the Middle East, had earlier confirmed the helicopter had gone down in a heavily populated Baghdad neighborhood...
The U.S. official also said it was too early to tell if this incident was connected to the crash Saturday of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed a dozen U.S. troops. Officials have gathered evidence that Saturday’s Black Hawk helicopter was shot down. A Pentagon official said there was evidence in the wreckage that it may have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile.
