From Reuters
Five U.S. service personnel were killed when a military transport helicopter crashed during a routine flight west of Baghdad on Tuesday.
The crash takes the death toll for the U.S. military to 10 in the past two days.
The U.S. military said the CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed near its al-Taqaddum air base outside Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, while conducting a "routine post-maintenance check flight".
There was no indication whether it was shot down. An investigation is under way.
The deaths of the five on board the helicopter takes the total number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein to at least 3,699.
So far in August at least 41 U.S. service members have died, compared with a total of 71 for July.
A 22-year-old Marine from Fort Dodge died August 7th in Iraq. The Defense Department says Sergeant Jon Bonnell Junior died in combat in Al Anbar province. He served with the First Battalion, 11th Regiment of the First Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton, California. His family says it was his second tour in Iraq.
His mother, Donna Bonnell, said, "I was probably the last one that he called. I said to watch his back and he said, we all watch each others backs." Bonnell was scheduled to leave Iraq this fall.
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