A pair of U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters

BAGHDAD, November 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 17 U.S. soldiers were killed and five seriously injured late Saturday, November 15, when two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters crashed over northern Iraq as one was reportedly trying to evade an attacking missile.

"There are 17 now dead, five injured and one soldier is unaccounted for," a U.S. Central Command official told Agence France-Presse (AFP), on condition of anonymity.

An Iraqi police officer told AFP he saw a Black Hawk helicopter intervening as assailants ambushed a U.S. foot patrol in the area.

A missile was then fired at the chopper, which crashed into a second Black Hawk as it tried to dodge the missile, he said.

The Central Command official declined to comment on that report, saying, "The incident is still under investigation, and the results will be released as soon as they are available. We will not speculate on the cause of this crash."

The death raised to 178 the number of U.S. troops killed in combat in Iraq since May 1, when Bush declared major hostilities over.

On Friday, November 14, a U.S. helicopter gunship killed seven people allegedly preparing to fire rockets at a U.S. base in northern Iraq and troops later found hundreds of other missiles and rockets.

On Friday, November 7, six U.S. forces were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter gunship was "forced down" near Tikrit.

On Sunday, November 2, 16 U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 wounded when an American helicopter gunship was shot down outside the flashpoint town of Fallujah.

In Basra, a spokesman said coalition headquarters in the southern port city were still closed in the wake of the bloodiest postwar anti-coalition attack which killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis in Nasiriyah Wednesday.

"We are still not open. No Iraqi staff can come in" the huge compound overlooking Shatt El-Arab, once used as Saddam's official palace, Dominic d'Angelo told AFP. The situation was supposed, according to him, to be reviewed late Saturday.

Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill told the American Australian Association in New York that the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq had "underestimated what a hugely traumatized society we are dealing with," according to transcripts of which were released by the Australian government Saturday.