Perry orders U.S. Iraq shootdown inquiries

WASHINGTON (Reuter): Defense Secretary William Perry has ordered investigators to find out why sophisticated U.S. warplanes shot down two U.S. helicopters over northern Iraq Thursday, killing 26 people.

U.S. officials said two U.S. F-15 fighter planes mistakenly identified the helicopters as Iraqi Hinds even though pilots had been told U.S. helicopters would be in the area and the helicopters were supposed to be in radio contact with the F-15s' command plane.

"There must have been human errors and there must also have been some fault in the process," Perry said in a CNN interview. "I don't think we will find a single error for an accident of this magnitude."

Perry said he ordered the U.S. European command to investigate and that it had already set up an investigative board, inviting representatives of all allied countries who lost people in the shootdown to participate.

U.S. officials said 15 Americans, five Kurds, three Turkish officers, two British officers and one French officer were killed in the two Blackhawk UH-60 helicopters.

Perry said he also directed Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the U.S. military joint chiefs of staff, to review procedures in all no-fly zones to prevent such accidents.

President Clinton ordered American flags at government installations lowered to half staff in mourning.

Clinton said the international team was part of a "mission of mercy" to protect Kurds in northern Iraq from President Saddam Hussein's military forces and said "the important work they were doing must and will continue."

Lt. Gen. Richard Keller, the European command's chief of staff, told reporters the tragedy developed as both the warplanes and the helicopters carried out the same routine missions they have for two years since the end of the Gulf War without incident.

He said the helicopters were carrying the allied officers and Kurds to a remote village and were supposed to keep radio contact with an airborne warning and control (AWACS) command post plane while they were in the air.

Keller said the two F-15 jets were reported to be under control of the same AWACS command plane while routinely patrolling to make sure no Iraqi aircraft violated the no-fly zone imposed over northern Iraq by allies after the Gulf War.

The helicopter pilots and pilots of 34 warplanes had rehearsed the operation the day before, getting briefed on which planes would be where, what radio frequencies they would be on and safety precautions to avoid just what happened, Keller said.

"Where those procedures failed in this case, we're not sure yet," he said in telephone press conference to the Pentagon from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

"I can tell you that the pilots of the F-15s felt that they had positively identified visually the Hinds," Keller said at another point.

He said the two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters had external fuel tanks, which would make them look more like Hinds. A defense official said they would particularly look like Hinds from above, where the F-15s were.

Keller said the helicopters had radio devices that identified them as friendly planes, but said he did know if the devices were working and did not know if the helicopters and the other planes were in radio contact.

Bodies of the victims were flown out of northern Iraq late Thursday and Perry postponed a trip he had planned to begin yesterday to Korea and Japan.