Two things from The Independent.

Iraqis shoot down third American helicopter

By Patrick Cockburn in Fallujah
14 January 2004


An American army helicopter was shot down near the militantly nationalist town of Fallujah yesterday, the third to be downed by guerrillas in the area in two weeks.

In the centre of Fallujah itself, three men in a car and an elderly woman were killed when US soldiers returned fire after two rockets were fired at them.

Earlier, hundreds of demonstrators had taken to the streets after a newly wed 17-year-old woman was detained. They chanted "Bush, you coward" and "Free our woman". She was later released. The soldiers had arrested her because they were looking for a relative who they suspected might know the whereabouts of Khamis Sarhan, the leader of the Baath party in Fallujah under Saddam Hussein. *snip*

...Iraqis accuse the US army of randomly using its massive firepower, leading to frequent civilian casualties which in turn feeds the insurgency.

The loss of the American AH-64 Apache aircraft, which was shot down near Habbaniyah, 12 miles west of Fallujah, is part of a worrying trend for the army. The two crew members were uninjured, but the downing of the Apache demonstrates the guerrillas' capacity over the past three months to hit US military helicopters with ground-to-air missiles or rocket-propelled grenades. *snip*

....

US helicopter pilots at the old Iraqi airforce base at Habbaniyah are conscious that the loss of a helicopter has political repercussions in the US in a way which losses on the ground do not. One pilot said, that just as Afghan guerrillas in the 1980s tried to find the moment when Russian helicopters were vulnerable, so local insurgents study the movements of helicopters around Fallujah. "The helicopters fly low at 100 feet, so by the time anybody on the ground can react, they are gone," said Specialist Stephen Sadeo, standing beside a helicopter which had just landed. A device on top of the helicopter prevents heat-seeking missiles locking on. "It works 85 per cent of the time," he said.

A lot more depth at article. Thank you, foreign press!

It seems at times as though the U.S. and the rest of humanity inhabit two different planets. That's propaganda for you. I can hardly wait for the wholly unbiased, "C-Span Baghdad." I'll have to miss that.

Here's the rest of humanity:

After five Iraqi demonstrators are killed, MoD examines role of 'trigger-happy' police

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
12 January 2004

It started out as a protest by Iraqi civilians outside city hall, furious that local authorities in the southern city of Amarah had reneged on promises to give them jobs.

By the end of the day, at least five Iraqis were dead, including at least one shot by a British soldier, in the most serious incident involving British troops since the summer.

Who fired the first shot? The Ministry of Defence, which is investigating Saturday's events, will have to explain how a demonstration demanding jobs deteriorated into a shooting match.

The trouble started when Iraqi police believed they came under fire in front of the provincial government offices in Amarah, an impoverished town on the banks of the Tigris.

Police officers opened fire and British troops with armoured vehicles were deployed to support them, according to the Ministry of Defence.

The British troops, in riot gear, also fired after grenades were hurled at them, the ministry said.

According to the Army, five protesters were killed. The local hospital said the toll was six dead and 11 wounded. All the dead were civilians and there were no police or military casualties.

"One, maybe two [of the dead] were possibly killed by British troops," Major Tim Smith, a British Army spokesman, said in Amarah yesterday. "Those troops were firing in self-defence. It was quite clear that a number of objects were thrown at the British troops, possibly grenades. I can assure everybody that they only fired in self-defence." Much more.

This should not be a remarkable story. It should be the norm in any occupied country. Sadly, this is the exception rather than the rule. U.S. troops seem to be able to conduct all manner of killing without any admonishment. If there is a substantial amount of military inquiry going on regarding the conduct of U.S. troops, it has not reached me. That is certainly a possibility. But I think it not the case.