The U.S. Marine UH-1 Huey helicopter which crashed at a forward supply and refuelling point in southern Iraq, killing three on board and inuring another

WASHINGTON, March 31 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Three U.S. marines were killed and one injured when a UH-1 Huey transport helicopter crashed in southern Iraq, the Pentagon announced late Sunday, March 30.

The crash "looks like an accident," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted as saying Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Lapan.

The helicopter was heading towards an unspecified "forward operating base," Lapan said.

Huey helicopters were first introduced in 1963 and have been widely used during and since the Vietnam War.

A series of helicopter accidents have dogged the occupation forces since the start of the war, with a U.S. helicopter crash and a collision between two British Royal Navy choppers leaving 19 allied troops dead.

Two Apache Longbow helicopters belonging to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division crashed Friday, March 28, when they tried to land in south-western Iraq, but the Pentagon said that the four occupants were not seriously wounded.

The U.S. pilots blamed desert sandstorms for the accidents. The sand often interferes with the helicopter's sophisticated landing gears.

Meanwhile, U.S. Central Command on Sunday denied Iraqi claims that a Harrier fighter and an Apache attack helicopter had been shot down over Iraq.

Ambush Kills Royal Marine, Injures Others

A British soldier belonging to the Royal Marines was killed and several others wounded late Sunday during action in southern Iraq.

"There has been further fighting in the area of Basra in which a British serviceman has been killed and several injured," AFP quoted a ministry spokesman as saying.

A journalist for The Times of London, who is based in southern Kuwait, reported in a pool dispatch that the victim, a Royal Marine, died of wounds sustained in an Iraqi ambush.

The marine and several comrades had been in a river launch that came under grenade and gunfire attack, the reporter said, adding that the ambush occurred as 539 Assault Squadron Royal Marines continued clearing the waterways on the Fao peninsula.

The wounded marines were helicoptered out to a field hospital, where one later died, the journalist said.

The defence ministry in London told AFP that it could not yet confirm any details of the attack.

A total of 24 British soldiers have now been killed since the start of the U.S.-led invasion war on March 20 -- 14 in helicopter accidents, five in combat, and five as a result of "friendly fire," according to official counts of confirmed and suspected dead.