Blackhawk and FA-18 down
Yo flyboy .... here is the latest casualties. "Fortunately" not blue on blue this time !
I pressume we are going to have a lot of dead people from today towards the weekend's end ...
As-Saliyah, Qatar - Two American aircraft have been shot down over Karbala in southern Iraq, with the loss of at least seven soldiers.
An American FA-18 Hornet has been shot down by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, killing seven soldiers on board.
The Hornet was the first US jet downed by the Iraqis since the Gulf War in 1991.
"A US Navy FA-18, a single-seat aircraft off of the USS Kitty Hawk, went down at approximately 22:45", said a statement released at Centcom's forward operating base in Qatar.
"The name of the pilot is being withheld pending notification of next of kin," the statement added.
The US Army Blackhawk helicopter was shot down in Iraq on Wednesday, but there were conflicting reports between the Pentagon and US central command on the number aboard and the number dead.
A Defence Department official said, "There were 11 on board. Preliminary reports say seven were killed."
The four survivors were probably picked up in a rescue operation, the official added.
However, a report of the incident posted on central command's website said only six were aboard the Blackhawk troop transporter, adding, "casualties have not been confirmed at this point...The cause of the crash is being investigated."
The Pentagon said the Blackhawk was apparently downed by small arms fire near the city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad.
Central command said the helicopter was on "an operational mission" when it crashed.
The Kerbala region was the site of heavy fighting on Wednesday and early Thursday as US troops moved to within just 50 kilometres of Baghdad, surging north in a major offensive that Pentagon officials said had left Iraq's key Republican Guard divisions in tatters.
Iraqi forces tried to counterattack but were repelled by coalition forces.
Helicopters have been at the centre of several deadly incidents during the war in Iraq.
Nineteen US and British servicemen were killed in the first two days of the conflict in helicopter accidents in the Gulf region.
Three Americans were killed and one was injured when a UH-1 Huey helicopter went down last Sunday.
The Iraqis claim to have shot down several Apache attack helicopters.