The US military said Sunday that the bodies of two American pilots, killed when their Apache helicopter crashed near Baghdad, were recovered and the aircraft was probably shot down. Three other US soldiers were reported killed in Baghdad and northern Iraq.
The AH-64D Apache Longbow went down about 5:30 p.m. Saturday during combat operations west of Youssifiyah, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Baghdad, the US command said in a statement.
"The soldiers' remains were recovered following aircraft recovery operations at the crash site" of the helicopter "which went down due to possible hostile fire," the statement said.
No further details were released, but Youssifiyah is located in the "triangle of death," a religiously mixed area notorious for attacks by Sunni extremists against Shi'ites traveling between Baghdad and religious shrines south of the capital.
