Daily Dispatch - South Africa
1-27-5
BAGHDAD (Sapa-AFP) -- At least 31 US Marines were killed in a US transport helicopter crash near the western Iraqi city of Rutbah, according to military and media reports yesterday.
It is the highest number of US fatalities to result from a single incident since the US first occupied Iraq almost two years ago.
Earlier yesterday the US military in Baghdad confirmed the crash saying it happened overnight as the helicopter was transporting soldiers from the 1st Marine Division, headquartered in Fallujah.
US Helicopter Downed By Surface-To-Air Missile - Witnesses