N CENTRAL IRAQ, March 24 - With a hail of small arms fire and
rocket-propelled grenades, Iraqi forces downed two Apache
helicopters today and forced 30 other helicopters in their brigade
back to their base.
One two-member crew was unaccounted for; the other was rescued.
Iraqi state television broadcast images of one downed helicopter,
which appeared largely intact, and jubilant men dancing around
it.
All 32 helicopters sustained some damage, occasionally slight, Army
officials said, in what was a significant setback for the
allies.
The attack surprised American Army leaders and may cause
them to rethink their military strategy, which relied on the
Apaches to destroy Iraq's armored divisions that ring
Baghdad.
The commander of the American-led invasion of Iraq confirmed the
loss of one Apache helicopter.
``The fate of the crew is uncertain right now,'' Gen. Tommy R.
Franks said at a news briefing at Central Command in Qatar. We
characterize that crew, two men, as missing in action.''
General Franks denied that the helicopter had been shot down by
farmers, as Iraq claimed, but did not say what had forced it out of
the air.
A CNN correspondent accompanying the United States Army Fifth Corps
11th Attack Helicopter Regiment, said the unit had been on a
night-time combat mission targeting units of the elite Republican
Guard.
The correspondent cited one of the pilots as saying they had run
into a ``hornet's nest, a barrage of antiaircraft fire,'' near the
city of Kerbala, 70 miles southwest of Baghdad, the closest
fighting to the Iraqi capital since the war began last
Thursday.
The Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, said at a
news conference: ``Farmers shot down two Apaches. We showed one
today and might show the second and the pilots.''
``We are holding several other American and British prisoners and
we may show some of them,'' the minister said.
The Apaches use a powerful radar, called the Longbow, that directs
their Hellfire missiles.
But the Apaches are suddenly coming under attack from
relatively low-technology weaponry.
Saddam Hussein ``is fighting an asymmetrical warfare,'' said Brig.
Gen. Benjamin Freakly, assistant commander of the 101st Division.
``This is not tank on tank fighting.''
The attack took place near the village of Abu Mustafe, north of Al
Hillah, and capped a punishing 24 hours for the allied
offensive.
General Freakly said that in an attack like the one on the
helicopters, ``you have 10 guys lying on top of a building firing
R.P.G.'s and small arms. You can go in and bomb that building and
reduce it to rubble,'' but at the potential cost of many civilian
lives.
The Army now may consider new tactics, such as additional close
aerial bombardment, to support the Apaches as they hunt for armored
divisions.
The Apaches were from the 11th Aviation Regiment, based in Germany,
and are attached to the V Corps.
Sandstorms are roiling the area, blowing at 25 knots, and are
likely to rise to 40 knots on Tuesday and Wednesday. At 30 knots, a
meteorologist said, visibility becomes practically nil.
General Franks also said today that the tenacity of some Iraqi
units, including the fedayeen, was no surprise and that
American-led forces had had some ``terrific firefights.''
The Republican Guard has been hit, he said, and ``they will
continue to be hit, at points and places and times that make sense
to us. The effect has been very positive for us.''
