[Times-UK] Richard Miniter and Michael Smith - A British Royal Navy helicopter that crashed in flames in Basra last year, killing all five on board, was shot down by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile supplied to Iraqi militants by Iran, according to U.S. officials. Three days before the attack, State Department officials interviewed an Iraqi linked to the Mahdi Army who told them Iran had supplied the militia with the Russian surface-to-air missile. British and U.S. troops fought pitched battles with the Mahdi Army near the southern town of Amara last week as they broke up a network smuggling equipment from Iran to make armor-piercing shaped-charge bombs.
2007-06-26 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive