Smoke billows from the U.S. military UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter outside Nuamiya (AFP)

BAGHDAD, January 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter went down in western Baghdad on Thursday, January 8, killing nine American soldiers aboard in an apparently fresh missile attack in the violence-scarred country, press reports said.

"The warplane was hit by a missile, and we rushed to the area only to see a trail of smoke billowing up in the air from the burning chopper," eyewitnesses told Al-Jazeera television.

The eyewitnesses said they saw at least six bodies doting the scene in Fallujah city, with no word whether they are all Americans.

Mohammed Ahmed al-Jamali, a farmer who lives close to the crash site, told Associated Press he heard the whoosh of a rocket, saw it hit the helicopter in the tail and watched the chopper crash in flames.

Al-Jamali, 27, said he rushed to the scene but found all aboard dead.

"I was in the farm, I heard the sound, looked up and I saw the rocket hit. It hit it in the tail," he elaborated.

Waleed Kurdi, 23-year-old student, told the agency he heard "a loud explosion and I saw the fire in the air."

He said the aircraft exploded in two before it hit the ground.

U.S. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters that there were "nine personnel aboard the aircraft…there here were no survivors."

"We are working under the presumption that they are all American soldiers," the military commander was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

AFP earlier quoted an unnamed U.S. military spokesman said earlier that those who died on the helicopter were "killed in action".

If the deaths are confirmed as U.S. military personnel, the fatalities will take to 225 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat since an end to major hostilities in Iraq was announced on May 1, said the AFP.

The attack is a fresh setback for occupation forces, one day after one American soldier was killed and 34 others injured in a mortar attack on a U.S. military base also west of Baghdad.

 ‘Emergency Landing’

A U.S. Army Kiowa scout helicopter searches the farm fields near the crash site (Reuters)

The U.S. military announced earlier that the plane plunged for "emergency landing" reasons.

"A UH-60 helicopter had an emergency landing near Fallujah, there were four crew and four passengers on board, eight killed in action," a spokesman said.

The Blackhawk was flying a medical evacuation when it crash landed at 2:22 pm (1122 GMT), the spokesman said.

Smoldering debris littered the crash site in the village of Nuamiya five kilometers (three miles) southeast of Fallujah, said an AFP correspondent at the scene.

Witnesses said two helicopters were seen in the skies overhead when one suddenly plunged from the sky.

Two choppers later landed by the crash site, while another two hovered overhead.

Falluja has long been a trouble area for occupation forces since the death of more than 15 people in demonstration against occupation in April.

On November 2, a Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah, killing 16 American soldiers and injuring 26.

The military believes a SA-7 shoulder-fired missile slammed into one of the chopper's rear-mounted engines.

In the last such incident on January 2, resistance fighters shot down an OH-58 observation helicopter in central Iraq, killing one pilot and injuring another.

It was the deadliest aircraft incident since November 15 when two Blackhawks, the main workhorse of U.S. combat troops, collided over the northern city of Mosul, killing 17 on board.