Baghdad - A US army helicopter crashed near the city of Mosul, north of Baghdad, on Friday after coming under fire from insurgents on the ground, witnesses said.
The witnesses in al-Sukar district north of Mosul told Reuters they saw gunmen fire on the helicopter, causing it to crash.
It was not immediately clear whether the crew survived the crash. US forces had sealed off the site, the witnesses said. The US military said it was checking the report.
It was the second US helicopter to crash in Iraq in less than a week. A military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed on Saturday, killing all 12 aboard in one of the worst incidents of its kind since the war began in 2003.
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The US military believes the Black Hawk may have been brought down by bad weather, but the cause is still under investigation.
Dozens of US-led troops have been killed in helicopter crashes since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, some in accidents and some after being fired on by insurgents with shoulder-fired missiles or small arms.
Faced with dangerous roads and vast tracts of desert, the military uses helicopters as its main means of transport to move troops and supplies between bases dotted around the country.
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