BAGHDAD, July 29 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi army helicopter crashed on Thursday during a mission in the central-north region of Iraq, killing five crew members aboard, the Iraqi military said.
The incident took place at 2:45 a.m. local time (2345 GMT Wednesday) when the helicopter was conducting a combat mission near the town of Amerly, some 150 km north of Baghdad, the media office of the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
The statement did not give further details about whether the incident was caused by a technical malfunction or hostile fire.
During the past few years, the Iraqi army helicopter gunships have played an effective role in the fight against the Islamic State groups. They provided aerial support to the ground forces to drive out the extremist militants from their strongholds in northern and western Iraq. Enditem
