A U.S. military helicopter shot down west of Baghdad on Friday, killing one soldier and injuring another, the U.S. military said. The crash of the OH-58 Kiowa helicopter near the town of Fallujah was under investigation, the military said, according to The AP.
Elsewhere, Arab gunmen shot and killed a Kurd amid rising ethnic tensions in the northern city of Kirkuk. Afterward, there was a shootout between Arabs and police, who killed two attackers and wounded several, said Jalal Jawher, local head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, The AP reported.
Also, a minor Baath party official was assassinated in an apparent revenge killing. Adel Jabar Abid Mustafa was taken from his home in Mosul Wednesday night and his body was found Thursday with two gunshots to his head, according to the dean's brother, Salim Abid Mustafa.
Additionally, American forces captured an Iraqi who was believed to be smuggling foreign fighters into Iraq from Syria, and also captured 10 fighters northeast of Baghdad, the US military announced on Friday.
In the western town of Ar-Rutbah, occupation soldiers on Thursday caught a man they suspected of managing the movement of foreign fighters inside Iraq from Syria. They described him as a "high-value target."
"He is believed to be responsible for moving foreign fighters and large sums of cash throughout the area of operations," the US statement said.
His detention resulted in the arrests of three others at "a suspected foreign fighter transit point," the statement said.
Meanwhile, occupation soldiers conducted a sweep Thursday for Wahhabists. During the operation, 10 "wanted" individuals arrested in a raid "targeting Wahhabi terrorists in the area," a US military officer from Baquba told AFP.
A large cache of bomb-making materials, including 23 kilograms of dynamite and 50 pounds of C-4 plastic explosives, were also seized. (Albawaba.com)
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