Jaysh al-Mujahideen Resistance group takes responsibility for downing American Apache helicopter.
In a dispatch posted at 4:55pm Mecca time Monday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that the Iraqi Resistance organization Jaysh al-Mujahideen had distributed communiqu市 in mosques in at-Tarimiyah, just north of Baghdad, saying that their fighters had shot down a US Apache helicopter over at-Tarimiyah using shoulder-launched missiles.
The Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in at-Tarimiyah reported local residents who witnessed the attack as saying that two US Apache helicopters had been on a reconnaissance and scouting mission over the city when Iraqi Resistance fighters fired an anti-aircraft missile at them. The rocket scored a direct hit on one of the Apaches, the witnesses said, causing it to crash and killing its two-man crew.
Al-Jazeera satellite TV reported that an announcement on the internet by the Jaysh al-Mujahideen included a video showing a rocket launched at what is said to be an Apache helicopter over at-Tarimiyah. The aircraft can be seen bursting into a ball of flame and crashing to earth in seconds, leaving a trail of smoke behind.