Juan Cole - April 22, 2005 Part 1

Guerrillas Shoot down Helicopter, Killing 11 (6 Americans)

AP reports that guerrillas shot down a helicopter carrying civilian security guards on Thursday. A jihadi website claimed that the guerrillas executed the one survivor of the crash, a Bulgarian. There are thousands of civilian security guards in Iraq of various nationalities. If the Iraqi guerrillas are now able to import more sophisticated shoulder-fired missile launchers, like SA-14s, they could become extremely deadly to US military helicopters, as well. (I don't know what weapon they used to down this helicopter.)