BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Five members of a private security detail sent to assist a U.S. Embassy convoy that was under attack were killed Tuesday when their helicopters were fired on and one plummeted to the pavement through a tangle of electrical wires in one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods.
The four-man crew in one helicopter was killed, and the gunner in a second helicopter apparently died when he was struck by gunfire,
The crash set off a chaotic five-hour battle in the Fadhil neighborhood in which American attack helicopters fired at least one Hellfire missile.
It is unclear if the first helicopter crashed as the result of gunfire, because it got tangled in the wires or as it was trying to land because a passenger was wounded.
An American military official said that at least four of the victims suffered gunshot wounds to the head, raising the prospect that some of them were shot on the ground.
The Sunni insurgent groups the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the Washington-based SITE Institute, which monitors terrorism Web sites"
The helicopters were operated by Blackwater USA of North Carolina, the same private security firm that lost four contractors in March 2004 in an ambush in Fallujah, their mutilated bodies hung from a bridge.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced three more troop deaths, a Marine killed Sunday and two soldiers killed Monday. That raised the three-day toll since Saturday to 31.
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