- MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Seventeen
soldiers died when guerrillas downed two U.S. helicopters in Iraq on Saturday,
just hours after a faster timetable for self-rule was unveiled which Washington
hopes will pacify Iraqi resentment.
-
- A U.S. officer at the scene said one of the helicopters
was hit on the tail by a rocket-propelled grenade. Witnesses said it then
collided with another Black Hawk, and both crashed in a residential neighborhood
in the northern city of Mosul.
-
- "I was watching TV when I heard a large explosion,"
said local man Mohammad Badran. "I looked outside the window and saw
two helicopters. One was flying low and was on fire. The other was higher
up. The first one climbed and hit the higher one."
-
- A U.S. Army spokeswoman in Baghdad said 17 soldiers were
killed, five were wounded and one was missing. The army would not immediately
confirm they were all American soldiers.
-
- Five U.S. helicopters have now been brought down in the
last three weeks, killing 39 soldiers.
-
- Facing a mounting death toll and increasingly audacious
guerrilla attacks, Washington has been pushing for a speedier transition
to Iraqi self-government.
-
- Iraq's U.S. administrator Paul Bremer was recalled to
Washington earlier this week for hastily convened talks on the situation
in Iraq. On his return to Baghdad, the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council
unveiled a new political timetable.
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