The U.S. military in Baghdad said Tuesday it was investigating what appeared to be the crash of a civilian aircraft after reports a helicopter was shot down over the capital. According to the AP, the military said it had no evidence any U.S. forces aircraft were involved but was investigating "what appears to be a crashed civilian aircraft."
"We are in the process of determining the facts and checking on the welfare and status of those involved," U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor told The Associated Press.
The military statement followed a report on a television station run by the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party that a U.S. helicopter was shot down during clashes in the al-Fadhl district in eastern Baghdad.
Meanwhile, American helicopters bombed sites north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing seven gunmen, the U.S. military said. The air strike took place during a raid targeting "foreign terrorist facilitators" northwest of Haditha in the Anbar province, the U.S. military said in a statement, cited by Reuters. The US military also announced the deaths of two more servicemen. An American soldier also was killed Monday in the Anbar province west of the capital, the military said.
In other incidents, five people died when two bombs struck separate Shiite targets in Baghdad on Tuesday. The first blast Tuesday occurred when a parked car bomb exploded at 9 a.m. near the Finance Ministry, the AP reported. One civilian was killed and four other people were wounded, including a ministry guard, police said.
A bomb planted under a car exploded some 45 minutes later in the predominantly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in downtown Baghdad, killing four people, police said.
