- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Many
U.S. helicopters in Iraq lack standard anti-missile equipment that might
have prevented last weekend's attack on a Chinook helicopter that killed
15 U.S. troops, a Democratic senator said on Wednesday.
-
- Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said he had received e-mails
from "reliable military sources" who told him they had been battling
for the past six months to get anti-missile equipment for helicopters being
used in Iraq.
-
- "They've even had to take them off other helicopters
leaving for Iraq. It's (anti-missile equipment) the most basic equipment
they need to protect themselves," Durbin told ABC's "Good Morning
America" program.
-
- An American military CH-47 Chinook helicopter, whose
pilot came from Durbin's state, was downed by a shoulder-guided missile
last Sunday, killing 15 U.S. troops and injuring 27, two of whom were aboard
another helicopter that landed nearby in a rescue effort.
-
- "What we've learned from communications is that
for months they've been flying without the protective equipment, and the
crews and pilots have tried to secure the equipment from every source imaginable.
That's unacceptable to me, to put them in harm's way with less than the
best equipment," Durban said.
-
- He released an e-mail he said was from a pilot who backed
his claim that helicopters were not properly equipped.
-
- "So we were essentially flying around for five months
with no anti-missile equipment. And for the life of me, I cannot understand
what goes through the head of commanders that would load 30 soldiers into
an aircraft with no protection against such a credible threat," the
pilot said in the e-mail.
-
- Durbin said he had asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
to investigate whether flight crews had the proper protective equipment
against attacks such as last weekend's.
-
- The Pentagon was not immediately available to comment.
-
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