A U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed early Wednesday in western Iraq killing 31 people, military officials said. According to CNN, the aircraft crashed near Ar Rutbah at about 1:20 a.m. local time. It was carrying personnel from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the 1st Marine Division.
US military officials said a search and rescue team was at the site and an investigation of the crash was under way.
Also Wednesday four U.S. Marines were killed during combat in Iraq's Al-Anbar province, and a U.S. soldier died when armed men attacked a combat patrol north of Baghdad, according to the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, at least seven Iraqis were killed in a car bomb against a police station in the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, police said. "Two car bombs exploded this morning in the Riyad neighbourhood in west Kirkuk, one at a police station and another at a local market," police chief Major General Turhan Yusef told AFP.
According to him, the attack against the police station had killed three policemen, two soldiers and two civilians. The blast also left three policemen injured, he added.
Elsewhere, a U.S. convoy was attacked on the road to Baghdad airport and at least one vehicle was destroyed, witnesses said. In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, residents reported clashes Wednesday between U.S. troops and resistance fighters. The fighting erupted when fighters attacked a U.S. patrol with rocket-propelled grenades, the residents said. One Iraqi was killed and two were wounded, doctors said.
