Wounded in chopper crash treated in Germany
White House vows U.S. resolve 'unshakable' in Iraq
(CNN) --Sixteen of 20 U.S. soldiers injured in a deadly helicopter crash west of Baghdad were in stable condition Monday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, according to the hospital commander.
Sunday's CH-47 Chinook helicopter crash killed 16 U.S. soldiers near Amiryah, Iraq. The crash -- and the deaths of another U.S. soldier in a Baghdad bombing and two civilian contractors in an attack near Fallujah -- made it the deadliest day for Americans in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat.
Col. William Darley, a U.S. military spokesman, said witnesses reported seeing missile trails when the twin-engine transport helicopter went down but that the official cause of the crash was under investigation. A second helicopter was flying with it but was unscathed.
The injured U.S. soldiers arrived at Ramstein Air Base in Germany early Monday and were transported to the nearby medical center. The location of the other four soldiers injured in the crash was not immediately known. (Full story)
Landstuhl commander, Col. Rhonda Cornum, said 11 of the 16 soldiers were being treated in the hospital's intensive care unit. "The actual medical condition of people in the ICU is still being evaluated," Cornum said. "Currently everyone is considered stable."
Describing their injuries in general terms during a Monday news conference, Cornum said, "As with any airplane accident, [there are] a lot of broken bones, a lot of compressions, loss of consciousness from being knocked around, some head injuries -- that sort of thing."
The White House said it mourned Sunday's deaths of 17 soldiers and two civilians but that American resolve was unshakable.
"We will prevail in the critical front on the war on terror because the stakes are too high to do anything less," a White House statement said. "September 11 taught us that we must confront terrorists and outlaw regimes with weapons of mass murder before it's too late."
The State Department followed the deadly day with a new warning Monday for Iraq, cautioning that travel in the country was "extremely dangerous" and saying that "remnants of the former Baath regime, transnational terrorists and criminal elements" were targeting the military and civilians alike.
The statement warned that travel around Ramadi and Fallujah -- hotbeds of anti-American activity west of the Iraqi capital -- was particularly dangerous and said officials had "credible information that terrorists have targeted civil aviation in Iraq."
Overnight, U.S. forces were on patrol, netting nine detentions, 15 guns, 16 grenades, three unidentified missiles and four improvised explosive devices, according to a 4th Infantry Division spokesman.
A 4th Infantry patrol near Balad, north of Baghdad, came under fire, the spokesman said. The patrol returned fire, killing five attackers, destroyed three vehicles and confiscated seven AK-47 assault rifles, he said.
An improvised explosive device hit another 4th Infantry patrol near Tarmiya, also north of Baghdad, the spokesman said. Following the explosion, the soldiers came under small-arms fire, and one was wounded, he said.
L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday that U.S. troops are seeing a more advanced use of makeshift bombs as "standoff" weapons, allowing resisters to strike American forces at a distance. (Full story)
Rumsfeld: 'We're going to have tragic days' The military death toll Sunday was second only to March 23, the day 29 American troops died in combat around the southern city of Nasiriya -- 11 soldiers in an ambush of a 507th Maintenance Company convoy and 18 Marines in a battle on the outskirts of town.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that the people resisting the U.S.-led occupation and the establishment of a new government in Iraq are "going to be beaten eventually."
"In a long, hard war, we're going to have tragic days, as this is," Rumsfeld told ABC's "This Week." "But they're necessary. They're part of a war that's difficult and complicated."
Rumsfeld said portable surface-to-air missiles "are widely available and do have the ability to shoot down a helicopter, and from time to time, this happens."
Sunday's attacks came as coalition forces were on alert for a threatened "day of resistance" by anti-coalition guerrillas following a warning from the U.S. Consulate in Baghdad.
The helicopter was flying from Fallujah to Baghdad when it went down about 9 a.m. (1 a.m. EST) near Amiryah, according to U.S. Central Command.
It was assigned to the 12th Aviation Brigade, which is supporting a task force led by the 82nd Airborne Division.
The troops were from units based at Fort Carson, Colorado; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and Fort Hood, Texas, Pentagon sources said. (Full story)
Staff Sgt. Paul A. Velazquez, 29, was the first of the dead identified by the Pentagon, which was withholding names until families could be contacted. Velazquez was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, III Corps Artillery at Fort Sill.
The soldiers aboard the chopper were on their way to rest and recuperation leave in the United States and Qatar, the sources said.
The military recently expanded its R&R program, bringing nearly 500 troops a day back to the United States for two-week leaves.
Sunday's deaths brought the number of U.S. combat fatalities to 139 since May 1, according to the U.S. military.
There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1.
The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP said that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.
Anti-U.S. chants at attack site The two American civilians killed Sunday in Fallujah worked for EOD Technologies Inc., a Knoxville, Tennessee, company hired by the Army Corps of Engineers to destroy captured Iraqi ammunition stockpiles, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said. A third civilian was wounded.
After the attack, Fallujah residents flocked to the site and chanted anti-U.S. slogans.
U.S. troops clashed Sunday with Iraqis in the Abu Ghraib market west of Baghdad. Local Iraqis said U.S. troops arrived at the market in the morning and ordered people to disperse, according to The Associated Press. A grenade was tossed at the Americans, who then began firing, witnesses told the AP.
It was the same area where 14 Iraqis were killed Friday in fighting with U.S. troops.
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