Chinook fired flare to evade deadly missile

WASHINGTON -- The Chinook helicopter that crashed in Iraq this week fired at least one flare in an attempt to evade the heat-seeking missile that brought it down, a senior Army official told reporters Thursday.

The unconfirmed reports came from survivors from the crash, troops in a trailing helicopter and witnesses on the ground

This is the first indication that the helicopter crew was able to make an attempt to evade the missile.

It follows criticism from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, that suggested the CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter wasn't fully armored for defense.

The transport helicopter went down Sunday, initially killing 15 soldiers and wounding 27 others. The Pentagon reported that a 16th soldier died Thursday of wounds sustained in the crash.

A Defense Department statement said Sgt. Paul F. Fisher, 39, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, died at a hospital in Germany

Witnesses reported seeing surface-to-air missile plumes before the aircraft went down Sunday, and the crash is under investigation, military officials said.

Durbin sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asking whether the craft "had on board a fully operational ALQ-156 system with an automatic flare dispenser and whether it had seat armor."

An ALQ-156 system fires flares that lure a heat-seeking missile away from an aircraft's engines. Seat armor protects the pilots.

Durbin said Tuesday that "reliable military sources" told him ALQ-156s were only recently installed on some National Guard helicopters, that others flew "almost six months" without necessary equipment and that other aircraft lack any defense system at all.

A coalition official told CNN on Wednesday that the helicopter was equipped with a key missile defense system.

The helicopter was flying at 200 to 300 feet, and the crew simply may not have had enough time to conduct a successful evasion.

According to the official, the Iraqi missile struck the right engine and close-by fuel lines, causing a catastrophic failure. The aircraft had a fully operational suite of evasive equipment, including flare dispensers, missile warning and radar warning.

The official declined to specify whether the equipment was in the automatic firing mode, though given the threat environment it is likely it was.

"The aircraft had the right stuff on it," the Army official said. "But everything lined up right and (the attackers) got a lucky shot."

Also on Thursday, the U.S. Army paid tribute in a somber memorial service to the 15 troops who died Sunday in the helicopter crash near Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

Hundreds of soldiers attended Thursday's service at an air base west of Baghdad. Combat helmets -- one representing each of the dead -- were placed on 15 standing rifles on the back of a flatbed truck.

There was a final roll call for those who died in the crash. "Taps" was played, a 21-gun salute was fired, and "America the Beautiful" was sung.

Also Thursday, U.S. Central Command announced the deaths of two additional U.S. soldiers in Iraq. One soldier was killed and two wounded Wednesday night when their patrol was ambushed 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Central Command said. On Thursday morning, a soldier was killed when his military truck ran over a landmine near Iraq's Husaybah border crossing into Syria, according to Central Command.

The deaths bring the number of U.S. troop fatalities in Iraq to 384, including 245 since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.

There is no reliable source for Iraqi civilian or combatant casualty figures, either during the period of major combat or after May 1. The Associated Press reported an estimated 3,240 civilian Iraqi deaths between March 20 and April 20, but the AP reported that the figure was based on records of only half of Iraq's hospitals and the actual number was thought to be significantly higher.

Troop rotation ordered

The Pentagon will order about 128,000 U.S. troops to Iraq in early 2004 to replace forces rotating back to their home bases after a yearlong tour of duty, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday.

"The combat units serving in Iraq and most of the supporting units serving in the theater will be replaced," Rumsfeld said.

About 85,000 combat troops, including three National Guard combat brigades, have been notified they will be sent to the Iraq region, and 43,000 other Reserve and National Guard troops have been told they will be activated, Pentagon sources said.

Pentagon officials said it may be days before the public learns which Army National Guard and Reserve units face call-ups.

Active duty forces will include the 1st Infantry Division from Germany, 1st Cavalry Division from Texas and 1st Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Pendleton, California, Pentagon sources said earlier. The Marine unit recently returned from Iraq, but Marine Corps officials said many of the unit members will be new due to a good deal of routine turnover.

The units in Iraq expected to come home early next year are the 101st Airborne, 4th Infantry, 1st Armored and 82nd Airborne divisions.

The Bush administration had hoped to form a third multinational division but that did not materialize. The Polish and British already lead divisions.

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq could be reduced next spring, Rumsfeld said, once Iraqis assume responsibility for their nation's security and governance.

The number of U.S. forces will decrease, possibly to 105,000, he said.

He said 130,000 U.S. forces -- 102,000 full time and 28,000 Reserves and National Guard -- will be rotated out of Iraq between January and April.

The announcement came as a new survey suggested growing disapproval among Americans for Bush's policies on Iraq.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Thursday said that 54 percent of respondents disapproved of how Bush is handling the Iraq situation, compared with 50 percent in a similar poll a month ago. Conducted November 3-5, the latest survey interviewed about 1,000 Americans and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.