Chopper crash kills 9

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- A U.S. Black Hawk medivac helicopter crashed Thursday near the stronghold of the anti-American insurgency, killing all nine soldiers aboard, the U.S. military said. A witness said the helicopter, which bore red crosses, was hit in the tail by a rocket.\nAlso Thursday, about 80 prisoners were released from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, but they were not the detainees that U.S. authorities had promised would be freed under a special amnesty.\nAt Baghdad International Airport, an Air Force C-5 transport plane with 63 passengers and crew aboard made an emergency landing, and a senior official at the Pentagon said the plane was hit by hostile fire.\nThe military also said a U.S. soldier died Wednesday of injuries suffered in a mortar attack that wounded 33 other troops and a civilian west of Baghdad.\nThe deaths brought to at least 495 the number of Americans killed in Iraq from hostile and non-hostile causes since the start of the war in March, according to the U.S. Central Command and the Department of Defense.\nIn Washington, the Bush administration expressed its condolences. "The president is saddened anytime we lose men and women in the military," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "Our thoughts and prayers are always with the families and loved ones of those who lose their lives sacrificing to make the world a better place."\nThere were no survivors among the nine American soldiers aboard the helicopter that crashed about four miles south of Fallujah, the 82nd Airborne Division said.\nMohammed Ahmed al-Jamali, a farmer who lives close to the crash site, said he heard the whoosh of a rocket, saw it hit the helicopter in the tail and watched the chopper crash in flames.\nAl-Jamali, 27, said he rushed to the scene but found all aboard dead.\n"I was in the farm; I heard the sound, looked up, and I saw the rocket hit. It hit it in the tail," al-Jamali said.\nHe said there were two helicopters in the air, both with the distinctive red crosses of medical evacuation craft and that the second one was hit.\nThe helicopter was a medical evacuation aircraft, but it was unclear if it was carrying patients, a military official said on condition of anonymity.\nFallujah, west of Baghdad, is a flash point of the resistance against the U.S. occupation where rebels previously have shot down U.S. helicopters.\nA U.S. helicopter was shot down Jan. 2 in the Fallujah area, killing one soldier, and military officials said it almost certainly was shot down by rebels.\nAt Abu Ghraib, hundreds of people waited in frustration for hours, hoping relatives would be among the first detainees that coalition officials said would be freed in what U.S. officials portrayed as a goodwill gesture.\nU.S. guards said they had no orders to release anyone, and an Iraqi lawyer, Mohammed al-Tamimi, expressed doubt anyone would be freed Thursday from Abu Ghraib, where Saddam's regime tortured and murdered political opponents.\nThere was more confusion when three truckloads of prisoners were driven out of the prison and those waiting rushed out into the street after them, stopping traffic.\nAn official said it was a routine release of about 80 prisoners that had nothing to do with the amnesty announced Wednesday by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer.\n"This has nothing to do with Bremer's announcement. These are the ones who are routinely released every week," said Lt. Col. Roy Shere, a spokesman for the 800th Military Police Brigade that operates prisons in Iraq.\nBremer had said 506 of some 12,800 detainees would be released and that the first 100 would be freed Thursday from Abu Ghraib.\nThe rest were expected to be freed from camps all over the country in the coming weeks.\nBremer said that before they are released, the prisoners must first renounce violence and have a community or tribal leader accept responsibility for their conduct.\nU.S. and coalition troops have rounded up thousands of people suspected of attacks or of funding the anti-American insurgency in Iraq.\nRelatives at the prison said people were being arrested unjustly and there were dozens of tales of men detained because they were near the scene of an attack.\nCoalition officials said those to be released were low-level "associates" of insurgents who had not been directly involved in any attacks.