20070204 US To Change Helicopter Tactics In Iraq

US To Change Helicopter Tactics In Iraq cbs_ap

Engage, Adapt, Overcome

February 4^th, 2007

Photo credit: TF AVCRAD newsletter.

U.S. To Change Helicopter Tactics In Iraq

4 Choppers Shot Down In 2 Weeks; Insurgents Claim "New Ways" To Fight

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/04/iraq/main2430500.shtml

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 4, 2007

(CBS/AP) The U.S. command has ordered changes in flight operations after four helicopters were shot down in the last two weeks, the chief military spokesman said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the aircraft were lost to hostile fire.

The crashes, which began Jan. 20, follow insurgent claims that they have received new stocks of anti-aircraft weapons — and a recent boast by Sunni militants that "God has granted new ways" to threaten U.S. aircraft.

All four helicopters were shot down during a recent increase in violence…

[…]

In December, a spokesman for Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party, Khudair al-Murshidi, told The Associated Press in Damascus, Syria, that Sunni insurgents had received shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles and "we are going to surprise them," meaning U.S. forces.

Al-Murshidi did not say when or how the missiles were obtained.

Insurgents have used SA-7s, a shoulder-fired missile with an infrared homing device, against U.S. and British aircraft since 2003.

In an Internet statement, the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the latest crash — an Apache Longbow helicopter that went down Friday north of Baghdad, killing two crew members.

"We tell the enemies of God that the airspace of the Islamic State in Iraq is prohibited to your aircraft just like its lands are," the statement said. "God has granted new ways for the soldiers of the State of Iraq to confront your aircraft."

It was unclear if the "new ways" referred to new and advanced anti-aircraft weapons — such as SA-18 missiles — or was simply a boast.

U.S. military helicopters are equipped with long-range sensors and devices to jam radar and infrared technology, but they have proven vulnerable to intense gunfire, as well as rocket-propelled grenades.

The crashes have occurred in the run-up to the new U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown, in which an additional 21,500 American troops and about 8,000 Iraqi soldiers are being sent mostly to Baghdad in another bid to quell sectarian violence.

[…]

Sen. John McCain sought to weaken support for a resolution opposing President Bush's Iraq war strategy Sunday, saying proponents are intellectually dishonest. McCain contended the bipartisan proposal amounted to a demoralizing "vote of no confidence" in the U.S. military.

[…]

The Arab League sent Mokhtar Lamani to Iraq to persuade its bitterly divided Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders to make peace. He failed, and has now resigned, disillusioned and nearly drained of hope. "I am no longer going to stand and watch Iraqis' bodies being taken to the cemetery," he said in Cairo, where he returned from Baghdad last week to deliver his resignation to the Arab League.

Read the entire article here.

####