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Chance: Hostility toward U.S. in Mosul

Matthew Chance
Matthew Chance

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Matthew Chance

MOSUL, Iraq (CNN) -- Two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters crashed Saturday in Iraq, killing at least 17 U.S. soldiers. The choppers went down in a residential neighborhood in the northern city of Mosul.

CNN correspondent Matthew Chance was in Mosul on Sunday, where he spoke with anchor Renay San Miguel about the local attitude toward U.S. forces, and the ongoing investigation of the crash.

CHANCE: There have been so many attacks against coalition and U.S. forces in recent days and recent weeks, but this one carried the heaviest cost in terms of the lives of U.S. troops.

You join me here in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in a position overlooking the crash site where those two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters came down last night. The exact circumstances of their downing remain unclear. But investigators are focusing on the possibility that hostile fire was involved.

U.S. forces for several hours this afternoon, local time, had cordoned off this area in the western suburbs of Mosul in order to extract the wreckage from the scene and to gather whatever forensic evidence they can to try and ascertain exactly what it was that caused the downing of these two choppers.

What we do know at this point is the casualty figures on the U.S. side -- at least 17 confirmed as dead, plus one body they say they have, but have not yet been able to identify. That brings to 18, the total number of dead. Plus five injured, some of them said to be seriously.

As we look out over these rooftops here in western Mosul, you can see it's a very densely populated area of the city. The choppers came down on top of these buildings. One crashed into a school. Fortunately there were no children in classes in that school at the time, so there were no injuries.

Another one came down on a house. We've just been inside that house, and they spoke to me about what happened during that evening. They say they were in the living room with 15 members of their family when they heard a huge explosion and then felt the impact of that helicopter crash into their building. It was amazing that nobody was injured in that incident either in terms of Iraqis on the ground.

Nevertheless, a great deal of hostility towards U.S. forces here in Mosul. U.S. forces may be bunkered up still behind sandbags and barbed wire. A lot of the locals we've spoken to say they are joyful at the fact that these two helicopters were brought down in their city.

The helicopters crashed in a residential part of Mosul.
The helicopters crashed in a residential part of Mosul.

SAN MIGUEL: You talk about this anti-American sentiment that is there in Mosul, but what about actual incidents of resistance, attacks against U.S. forces in Mosul. Are we starting to see more of this in recent weeks?

CHANCE: We do seem to be seeing a pattern develop where this insurgency, which has mainly been focused on the Sunni areas, what we call the Sunni triangle to the north and to the west of Baghdad, spread out to other areas of the country as well.

Certainly Mosul has not been the quietest of all cities in this country. There have been some attacks, but the very fact that this kind of an attack, if it is hostile fire that's determined to be the cause of the downing of these two choppers, the fact that this has taken place in Mosul indicates that the level of resistance here in this city may be on the increase and perhaps those insurgents have access to more sophisticated weaponry.

Certainly they've demonstrated that they're able and confident to strike at the U.S. forces in a very painful fashion.


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