A US Army OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed Friday in northern Iraq, killing the two pilots, according to the US military.
The crash took place at about 8:30 p.m. [local time] near Qayyarah, some 30 miles south of Mosul, the military said, according to The AP.
The cause of the crash was unclear. The military said "an initial report from the accompanying second helicopter did not make mention of hostile activity."
Earlier in the day, a bomb planted in a meeting room went off after a gathering of the Iraqi Communist Party, killing two persons in an apparent attack on supporters of the US-backed government, officials said Friday.
The bomb, suspected to have been planted in a meeting hall of the Iraqi Communist Party's local office, blew up Thursday evening, an hour after a meeting of 50 party members, said Mohammed Khudeir, a party official, according to AFP.
He said three party members were still in the office, clearing up, when the bomb exploded, killing two and wounding one. "It's a cowardly and terrorist act that led to the killing of innocent people," said Hamid Majid Moussa, the chief of the Iraqi Communist Party and a member of the U.S.-installed Iraqi Governing Council.
Meanwhile, top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called a halt to anti-US demonstrations in Iraq until the United Nations decides whether direct elections can be held, his representative said.
It is "vital today, to wait until the United States and the UN clarify their positions on the election procedure to choose the nature of the next Iraqi government and the basic law," Sheikh Abdel Mahdi al-Karbalai said at Friday prayers in this holy city.
He said the ruling was issued through the Marjaiya, the highest Shiite religious authority in Iraq.
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
