- SOUTHWEST IRAQ (AFP)
- A US Apache and a Black Hawk helicopter went missing during a heavy sandstorm
in southern Iraq which cut visibility to just 100 meters (yards), a US
officer told AFP.
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- "At the moment one Apache and one Black Hawk are
unaccounted for," said the senior officer with the Bravo Company aviation
unit under the command of the 3rd Infantry Division at an unidentified
point to the south of Nasiriyah.
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- A sandstorm raging since 10:00 am (0700 GMT) halted a
planned advance northwards by the unit.
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- Five other Apache helicopters which had also taken off
landed safely, the officer added Tuesday.
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- Poor visibility forced a search for the two helicopters
to be put off.
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- Sandstorms have wreaked havoc on the sixth day of the
US-led coalition's drive to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
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- Hundreds of of tanks and amphibious assault vehicles
were brought to a halt northwest of Nasiriyah when a storm blackened the
skies.
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- Further south, another dense sandstorm disrupted critical
helicopter operations by the US 101st Airborne Division that is advancing
on Baghdad, correspondents there said.
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- An Air Force meteorologist assigned to the 101st said
visibility was less than a mile (half a kilometre) and that winds had reached
speeds of 35 to 50 knots, conditions that were likely to prevail until
Wednesday morning.
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- A US Apache helicopter which took part in an air operation
against elite Iraqi Republican Guard units near Baghdad Monday went down
and its two-man crew was missing in action, US commanders.
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- Iraqi state television late Monday showed videotape of
two men it said were Apache pilots and said they were POWs who would be
treated in line with international law.
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