Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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July 5, 2007

US Military Says Helicopter Crashed in Iraq After Hitting Power Lines
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=180BBE1:A6F02AD83191E160526604CE7C8629179574F7DCC14957C0 But Insurgent
group Islamic State of Iraq said in Internet statement that helicopter
hit high-voltage power line during fight with its fighters The U.S.
military in Iraq says a helicopter crash that caused the death of an
American soldier and injured another happened after the aircraft
collided with electrical wires.

The military said there are no indications the helicopter was shot
down when it crashed Wednesday in Nineveh province north of
Baghdad. But the insurgent group Islamic State of Iraq said in an
Internet statement that the helicopter hit a high-voltage power line
during a fight with its fighters.

Also Thursday, the Washington Post reports deaths from sectarian
violence in Baghdad have risen for the second month and are now higher
than they were in January. 

The newspaper says in June, according to the Iraqi health ministry,
the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets rose to 453 -
despite the deployment of additional U.S. troops.

But the paper also says the data show that fatalities from
mass-casualty bombings and the level of violent civilian deaths in
Iraq as a whole have declined since the beginning of the year.

The U.S. military said coalition forces have detained 15 suspected
insurgents and killed two during raids in Baghdad and elsewhere in
Iraq.  Among those detained is a man it described as the
"administrative emir" responsible for logistics and financing for
al-Qaida in Iraq cells in a Baghdad neighborhood.

Some information for this report provided by AP.


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