US marine dies in Iraq helicopter crash

A US marine has died and three people are missing after a helicopter carrying 16 people made an emergency landing in a lake in…

A US marine has died and three people are missing after a helicopter carrying 16 people made an emergency landing in a lake in a volatile province west of Baghdad yesterday.

Twelve passengers survived the crash in Anbar province, the military said today.

The military said the marine was pulled from the water, but attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. Three other service members were listed as "duty status unknown".

The military said the incident did not appear to be due to enemy action but was still being investigated.

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Elsewhere in Baghdad, an Iraqi journalist working for a local radio station was shot dead by gunmen today, according to an official at Dijla station.

The attack is the latest against Iraqi journalists as the country slides towards sectarian civil war. Last month gunmen killed a reporter and her driver in the northern city of Mosul, days after killing a colleague.

Since the start of the March 2003 US-led invasion, more than 100 journalists and media assistants, such as drivers and translators, have been killed in Iraq, most of them Iraqis.