From combined dispatches
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said yesterday it detained six men suspected of shooting down a civilian helicopter carrying 11 civilians — including six Americans — north of Baghdad two days earlier.
An Iraqi civilian told the Americans that he knew where insurgents had taken a blue Kia pickup truck used in the attack and led them to the site.
“At the first house, they captured three men and confiscated bomb-making material. At the second house, the unit detained three more suspects involved in making improvised explosive devices,” the military said.
It did not identify the suspects or where they were captured.
Arrests after attacks are rare because civilians are reluctant to turn in militants for fear cooperative families will suffer retaliation.
Nevertheless, there have been several instances of civilian Iraqis stepping up to fight back since the Jan. 30 elections.
Last month, Baghdad shopkeepers fatally shot three terrorists who had begun shooting at cars.
There also have been several public demonstrations against terrorists and at least one other gunbattle with militants in the town of Wihda, about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
All 11 persons on board the helicopter were killed Thursday, with the Bulgarian pilot who survived the crash being gunned down by the insurgents.
In continuing violence yesterday, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb near an Iraqi army convoy on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing nine soldiers and wounding 20 in one of a series of such attacks across the country, police said.
When the surviving Iraqi soldiers responded with gunfire, they killed a civilian driving a car, police Lt. Ahmed Abud said.
The military also said an American soldier was killed yesterday when his convoy was ripped by a roadside bomb near Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad.
The bombing was one of at least three explosions in the Baghdad area.
A car bomb targeting a U.S. patrol detonated on a road leading to the perilous airport highway, killing one Iraqi and wounding seven, hospital officials said.
Three American soldiers also were wounded in the blast, which knocked down power lines and destroyed one military and two civilian vehicles, the military said.
Yesterday’s violence was part of a surge of militant attacks that have caused heavy casualties in recent weeks, ending a lull after Iraqis voted Jan. 30.
Iraqi leaders are struggling to form a Cabinet that will include members of the Sunni minority, believed to be the driving force behind the insurgency.
The main Sunni Arab alliance demanded eight posts in a new Iraqi Cabinet yesterday, including a deputy prime minister one and a key ministry one, Agence France-Presse reported.
The Sunni demands are a new setback to efforts to forge a governing coalition 12 weeks after landmark elections.
The National Front includes more than 30 Sunni groups, most without representation in parliament after the widespread boycott of January’s election by the Sunnis.
The Shi’ite-led United Iraqi Alliance took 146 of the 275 seats in parliament, while the main Kurdish bloc took 77.
Both groups want to include Sunnis in a new government in a bid to wean the former elite away from insurgent groups and into the political mainstream.
U.S. and Iraqi officials fear that the failure to form a government is emboldening the insurgency.
Divisions between the main Shi’ite alliance that won the election and other parties, including the Kurds and a party led by caretaker Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, have hindered attempts to form a government.
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