Russian rebels say they shot down army helicopter

MOSCOW, Sep 13 (Reuters) A Russian Islamist insurgents said they shot down a military helicopter that crashed on Monday killing 11 people, including senior officers.

The claim could not be independently verified. Military commanders have said the most likely cause of the crash was a combination of bad weather and pilot error.

The claim was made by a group calling itself the Ossetia Jamaat, which said it was allied to other Islamist insurgent groups in Russia's North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya.

''The mujahideen (holy warriors) shot down the helicopter with the help of a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile,'' the group said in a statement posted on rebel Web site www.chechenpress.net.

Russia's Defence Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. The helicopter crashed in a wooded ravine in North Ossetia, a mainly Christian province of the North Caucasus that has seen little homegrown insurgent activity.

The statement said the insurgents targeted the Mi-8 helicopter after receiving intelligence it was carrying senior officers.

The defence ministry said two generals were among the dead but has not released the names of those killed.

It said those on board included the deputy commander of the North Caucasus military district and the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of logistics and deputy head of medical services.

The insurgents want to drive Moscow's forces out of the North Caucasus and establish Islamist rule. Their campaign began in Chechnya and has since spread into other parts of the mainly Muslim region.

North Ossetia was the scene of the 2004 Beslan School siege which killed more than 300 people, half of them children. But most of the hostage-takers were from Chechnya and other Muslim areas in Russia's South.

North Caucasus military district commander Alexander Baranov said the helicopter flew into cloud and then clipped some trees.

Russian media quoted prosecutors, who are investigating the crash, as saying they were looking into all possible causes, including hostile action.

REUTERS PDM BS1355