Three US soldiers missing in Iraq; Shiites draw election battle plans

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040126/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us&cid=1514&ncid=1473

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Hopes were fading of recovering alive three US soldiers lost when a boat capsized and a helicopter crashed in northern Iraq (news - web sites), as the country's Shiite Muslim majority drew up battle plans in their campaign for swift elections.


The OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter splashed down Sunday in the Tigris river near the northern city of Mosul shortly after the boat overturned at 5:15 pm (1415 GMT), leaving two Iraqi police and a translator dead.


Search operations were continuing Monday for the two-man chopper crew and the boat crewman. The US military said the crash was not believed to have been caused by hostile fire, but investigations were underway.


A senior police official in Mosul said the 101st Airborne Division aircraft had flown at low altitude into towing cables strung across the swollen river, which runs from Turkey to Syria before flowing south across Iraq to the Gulf.

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