Five US contractors killed in Baghdad helicopter attack

Five members of a private security detail protecting a US convoy were killed on Jan. 23 when their helicopters came under attack. One of the helicopters plummeted to the pavement through a tangle of electrical wires in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods. The four-man crew in one helicopter was killed, and the gunner in a second helicopter apparently died when he was struck by gunfire, US officials said. The crash set off a chaotic five-hour battle in which US attack helicopters crisscrossed the skies over Baghdad and fired at least one Hellfire missile into the streets below. It is unclear if the first helicopter crashed as the result of gunfire, or because it got tangled in the wires as it was trying to land. A US military official said that at least four of the victims had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, raising the prospect that some of them had been shot on the ground. The helicopters were operated by the North Carolina-based Blackwater corporation, the same private security firm that lost four contractors in March 2004 in an ambush in the desert town of Falluja, their bodies mutilated, set on fire and hung from a bridge. This time, the Blackwater contractors were on a routine protection detail in Baghdad, monitoring an official convoy traveling by road. The company has a major contract with the State Department to protect officials traveling outside the protected Green Zone. The attack was carried out as the helicopters swooped low over the Fadhil neighborhood, an ancient area of narrow, twisting streets that is home predominantly to Sunni Arabs and has been the site of numerous battles with insurgents in recent months. The crash took place near the Shorja market in central Baghdad. On the ground, fierce gun battles lasting several hours could be heard from blocks away. Apache helicopters took to the sky soon after the attack and could be seen sweeping over the area, making sharp loops over the eastern banks of the Tigris River and then flying low over the neighborhoods. Initially, according to a US military official, they were just searching for the downed helicopter. But at one point, they fired at least one Hellfire missile, although military officials could not confirm that it was in response to the downed helicopter.