A US Army Black Hawk helicopter has been shot down by small arms fire in southern Iraq, killing seven and wounding four on board, a US official said last night.
The official at the Pentagon said the helicopter was shot down near Kerbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, early this morning.
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A US Army Black Hawk
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But Central Command in Tampa, Florida, issued a contradictory statement, saying the Black Hawk had only six people on board. The Central Command statement said there was no confirmation of casualties.
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancies in information from the Pentagon and from Central Command.
The Pentagon official said search and rescue personnel were at the scene where the craft came down, adding: "They were pulling people out". The Black Hawk had been carrying 11 personnel, the official said.
The Black Hawk was the second US helicopter lost in combat since US and British forces invaded Iraq two weeks ago. An Apache gunship went down last week and its two crew members were captured by Iraqi forces.