Six Iraqis were arrested on
Saturday for allegedly involving in the shooting down of a
Bulgarian helicopter on Thursday that killed all 11 people aboard,
the US military said in a statement.
The statement said that an Iraqi civilian helped a US task force
find and apprehend the six people after searching two houses in an
undisclosed location.
The Task Force Baghdad soldiers arrested three men and
confiscated bomb-making material at the first house and the rest
three were detained while making improvised explosive devices, said the statement.
The Bulgarian helicopter ferrying private security personnel
from Baghdad to the northern city of Tikrit crashed at 1:45 p.m.
(0945 GMT) Thursday some 20 km north of Baghdad.
Six US security contractors, three Bulgarian crew members and
two Fijian security guards aboard were all killed in the incident.
US military sources believed a rocket-propelled grenade hit the aircraft, said to be a Russian-made Mi-8 military helicopter.
Insurgents in Iraq sometimes managed to shoot down helicopters
and damage planes with projectiles. A US transport helicopter was
downed by rockets near Fallujah in 2003, with at least 16 US
soldiers aboard killed.