A US military helicopter crashed in western Baghdad on Monday night, killing two US soldiers on board. Though details of the crash were limited, the helicopter was reportedly not targeted by resistance fighters.
A US military spokesman told reporters in an official statement that "There was no hostile fire involved," according to Reuters.
US military sources also revealed on Tuesday that a soldier had been killed on Monday by a rocket-propelled grenade. The soldier was apparently on patrol at the time of the attack. And another soldier died of wounds received from small arms in Khalidiyah, in western Iraq.
Elsewhere, gunmen southeast of Kirkuk, 290 kilometers north of Baghdad, killed one police officer and wounded two. In clashes, which erupted between gunmen and Iraqi police in Baghdad, two policemen and two bystanders died, Capt. Firas Keti said. South of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed two officers, and gunmen in southern Baghdad killed another, police stated.
In another development, municipal workers in the Shiite city of Karbala found remains believed to be from a mass grave dating to 1991. The remains were discovered Monday and were sent for testing Tuesday in an effort to identify the bodies, Rahman Mashawy, a Karbala police spokesman was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Sunni opposition groups continued to call for new elections following the December 15 parliamentary vote which left Iraq's government in the hands of Shiites by a narrow margin. At least 5,000 demonstrators rallied in western Baghdad to protest alleged fraud on Tuesday. "No democracy without real elections", "rigged polls", "down with the electoral commission" read a number of banners, according to AFP. A similar demonstration was held in Tikrit, in the north of the country.
Those opposed to the election's outcome threatened to stage a wave of protests if their demands were not met, accusing Iraqi authorities of voter fraud.
Hassan Zaidan Al Lahaibi, a representative of the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, stated, "We will resort to peaceful options, including protests, civil disobedience and a boycott of the political process until our demands are met."
However, violent protests were carried out by some opposition groups on Monday, making it one of the most deadly days in recent weeks, with some 20 killed.
Most of the dead were Iraqi policeman and soldiers, both of whom have been the target of countless attacks by resistance groups since the beginning of the US-led invasion into Iraq in 2003. Several civilians, however, were also killed in Monday's violence.
