US adjusting tactics in Iraq after copters downed

BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (Reuters) The US military is adjusting its tactics in Iraq after four helicopters were shot down over the past two weeks, US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said today.

Caldwell said the helicopters had been shot down in four separate incidents in which 21 US servicemen and private security contractors were killed, confirming earlier witness reports and leaks from within the US military.

Dozens of US helicopters have come down, some of them hit by missiles or gunfire, in four years of fighting. But the unusually high number of helicopters lost in such a short time had raised questions about whether militants had changed tactics or were using more sophisticated weapons.

''There has been an ongoing effort to target our helicopters,'' Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad ''We have had four helicopters shot down ... It appears they were all the result of some kind of ground fire.'' He said the incidents were still under investigation, but in the meantime US helicopters were changing they way they flew in support of Iraqi and American troops.

''Based on what we've seen, we are already adjusting our tactics and procedures in how we deploy our helicopters,'' Caldwell said.

The US military relies heavily on helicopters to transport its troops or launch air strikes against suspected militants holed up in buildings.

A Black Hawk helicopter carrying 12 US soldiers and crew crashed northeast of Baghdad on January. 20, amid suggestions that it had been brought down by a shoulder-fired missile.

Three days later two helicopters flown by Blackwater security contractors were attacked while coming to the aid of US embassy personnel in central Baghdad.

One helicopter crashed under heavy gunfire, killing all four on board, while a fifth contractor was shot on the second helicopter, the US embassy said in a statement at the time.

An Apache was hit by machine gun fire and its two crew killed while supporting Iraqi troops battling heavily armed followers of a messianic Muslim cult near the holy city of Najaf last weekend, in an incident witnessed by a Reuters reporter.

In the latest incident, a helicopter crashed northwest of Baghdad on Friday, killing its two crew.

REUTERS SSC PM1822