2 Iraqis killed in blast

The bomb detonated next to a minibus in the southern Dura area of the city, killing a passenger who was stepping down from the vehicle and one more on board, said Iraqi Civil Defence Corps officer Mustafa Tarek.

Another passenger and the bus driver were also injured in the blast at 11:00 am (0800 GMT).

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Tarek said the device had probably been planted to explode when an American military convoy drove past. US patrols frequently use the road to reach a police station 200 metres (yards) from the blast site.

Meanwhile, hopes were fading yesterday of finding alive the two-man crew of a US rescue helicopter which crashed into the Tigris river in northern Iraq on a mission to save another US soldier from a capsized patrol boat.

The OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter splashed down Sunday in the river near the northern city of Mosul shortly after the boat overturned at 5:15 pm (1415 GMT), leaving two Iraqi police and a translator dead.

Search operations were continuing Monday for the chopper crew and the boat crewman. The US military said the crash was not believed to have been caused by hostile fire, but investigations were underway.

A senior police official in Mosul said the 101st Airborne Division helicopter had flown at low altitude into cables strung across the river, which had swollen to higher than usual levels.

The cables are used by Iraqi paramilitary civil defence soldiers for pulling unpowered vessels across the broad river, which runs from Turkey through Syria, before flowing south through Iraq to the Gulf.

Mosul is located 370km north of Baghdad and has been the scene of frequent attacks against coalition forces since Saddam Hussein was forced from power last April.

Sunday's crash was the fifth involving a US helicopter in Iraq this month, most caused by hostile fire.