Iraq Notebook
Victims of helicopter attack honored

	PIER PAOLO CITO / AP U.S. Army Spc. Charlie Wasley, left, and Sgt. Larry Chalcraft arrange helmets and rifles in a ceremony for soldiers killed Monday.
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

On a soccer field inside the sprawling, former Iraqi desert base at Al Asad in western Iraq, 15 rifles were arranged upright on a flatbed truck, a battle helmet capping each weapon and the fallen soldiers' dog tags dangling in the breeze. Most of those who died were members of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Yesterday, another soldier hurt in the attack died in a hospital in Germany, bringing the death toll to 16. Twenty-six were injured.

Many of the troops had been on their way to home leave when the Chinook helicopter was struck by what the military thinks was a shoulder-launched missile.

"Death was in the cause of freedom," said Col. David Teeples, the regiment's commander. "They were serving our country and answering our nation's call to fight terrorism." The Army yesterday said the helicopter apparently had a last-second warning of a missile and managed to launch flares designed to draw the heat-seeking missile away.

Lynch raped by captors, according to her family

	Jessica Lynch

Jessica Lynch, the U.S. Army private whose capture and subsequent rescue made her the most famous soldier of the war in Iraq, was raped by her Iraqi captors, according to a family spokesman.

A new authorized biography of the soldier accurately cites medical records indicating Lynch was sexually assaulted, said spokesman Stephen Goodwin. He said the 20-year-old former private has no recollection of the attack.

The New York Daily News obtained a copy of the book, written by Rick Bragg and titled, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," and published excerpts yesterday ahead of the scheduled Tuesday release.

In an interview to be broadcast Tuesday on the ABC News program "Primetime," Lynch told Diane Sawyer she doesn't remember such an assault, saying "even just the thinking about that, that's too painful," according to a news release by the network.

Lynch, a member of the 507th Maintenance Company, was rescued from the hospital in Nasiriyah by U.S. forces April 1. The rescue buoyed U.S. troops in Iraq who were then stalled south of Baghdad and lifted the spirits of the U.S. public. The publicity turned the aspiring teacher from Palestine, W.Va., into something of a hero, which she told Sawyer was embarrassing.

Lynch also told Sawyer that during the ambush her weapon jammed and she never fired a shot, contrary to initial reports published in The Washington Post and elsewhere. "I don't look at myself as a hero," Lynch said, adding the true heroes were the soldiers who saved her.

In the interview, she disputed the military's accounts of her rescue and criticized it for exaggerating the danger of the mission, said The New York Times in today's online edition. The paper quoted her as saying, "I don't think it happened quite like that."

Looted Iraqi artwork recovered from cesspool

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two priceless pieces of Iraq's ancient heritage, looted from Baghdad's main museum in the chaotic days after Saddam Hussein's fall, have been recovered from a Baghdad cesspool, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The Akkadian Bassetki, a copper statue of a seated man dating from 2300 B.C., and an ancient Assyrian firebox that a king would have used to keep himself warm were recovered by police investigators, the authorities said.

While it was initially feared that thousands of ancient pieces of art were stolen during a days-long orgy of looting shortly after Saddam's regime was overthrown in April, experts think the actual number was much lower.

Spokane-area soldier killed in Iraq is fifth for state

SPOKANE — A soldier from the Spokane area was killed this week in Iraq, his family confirmed yesterday. Robert Theodore Benson died of wounds he received Tuesday in Baghdad, according to Ted Benson, his father.

"He was wounded and died of his wounds," Benson said. "We were very proud of him." Benson is the fifth soldier from Washington state killed so far in Iraq.

Details of the incident were not available, but the military said the soldier died from what was described as a nonhostile gunshot wound suffered at a checkpoint.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company