{"id":28268,"date":"2014-10-09T00:32:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T16:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=28268"},"modified":"2014-10-09T00:32:14","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T16:32:14","slug":"islamic-state-group-downs-another-iraqi-helicopter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/09\/islamic-state-group-downs-another-iraqi-helicopter\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic State group downs another Iraqi helicopter"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BAGHDAD \u2014 Militants with Islamic State group on Wednesday shot down an Iraqi military attack helicopter, killing the two pilots on board in the second such incident in a week and raising concerns about the extremists’ ability to attack aircraft amid ongoing U.S.-led airstrikes.<\/p>\n

According to two Iraqi officials, the extremists used a shoulder-fired missile to take down the Bell 407 helicopter, which crashed just north of the refinery town of Beiji, located about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad.<\/p>\n

The pilot and co-pilot were both killed in the attack, a military aviation official told The Associated Press. A Defense Ministry official confirmed the information. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.<\/p>\n

This is the second Iraqi military helicopter shot down by the Islamic State group over Beiji in one week. Militants shot down an Mi-35 helicopter near Beiji on Friday, also killing the pilot and co-pilot in that attack.<\/p>\n

The two incidents highlight the Islamic State group’s ability to counter air operations, potentially putting at risk U.S.-led airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Some fear the militants may have captured some sophisticated weapons, such as ground-to-air missiles capable of shooting down airplanes when they overran abandoned Iraqi army bases this summer.<\/p>\n

European airlines including Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Air France, U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines and Dubai-based Emirates changed their commercial flight plans over the summer to avoid the Iraqi airspace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BAGHDAD \u2014 Militants with Islamic State group on Wednesday shot down an Iraqi military attack helicopter, killing the two pilots …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-w","mauthors-qassim-abdul-zahra","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}