CHINOOK DOWN

This is horrible.

A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter packed with soldiers headed for a short-term break was hit with a missile and crashed in the field west of Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing 15 soldiers and wounding 21 others in the deadliest single attack on American forces since they invaded Iraq.

The shoulder-fired missile streaked through a clear blue sky and struck the dual-rotor helicopter in its rear around 9 a.m. as it was ferrying soldiers from a base in western Iraq to Baghdad's international airport. The impact sparked an explosion and a fire, witnesses said. Moments later, the witnesses said, the helicopter pitched upward and fell to the ground just south of Fallujah, a city 40 miles west of Baghdad where resistance to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has been particularly intense.

The force of the impact decimated the 10-ton Chinook, scattering twisted and charred pieces of the fuselage over a wide area. Everyone on board was killed or injured, many of them severely, military officials said. Several of the wounded suffered serious internal injuries and extensive burns, the officials said.

"It was a tremendous explosion," said Arif Jassim Hadi, 30, a farmer standing along a dirt road near the crash site, which smoldered for hours.

One witness said he saw a soldier whose legs were on fire crawling away from the crash site with his hands.

The Chinook that was struck, apparently filled with its maximum load of 33 passengers and three crew members, was flying along with another Chinook. Both helicopters were carrying soldiers from the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division. The soldiers were supposed to fly out of Iraq later Sunday for four-day breaks in Qatar, two-week holidays in the United States or emergency family leave.

Jeebus. Of course, those men can know they died for a good cause: They have shown, yet again, how "desperate" the opposition is. If Dubya trots out that line today...

UPDATE: now they say it's 16