Two U.S. helicopters fired on over Pakistan

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- Two U.S. helicopters came under fire in Pakistan as their crews attempted to retrieve the wreckage of another helicopter that had crashed during a covert weekend commando raid, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

And an accident during that commando raid inside Afghanistan "tore the wheels off" yet another aircraft, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said. The wheels were the same ones Taliban fighters found and claimed to have taken from a helicopter they shot down, she said.

In the incident in Pakistan, the retrieval crews on Saturday were transporting a Black Hawk helicopter that had crashed, killing two Rangers the night before when more than 100 special force soldiers raided an airfield and a Taliban compound in southern Afghanistan. Officials have said the Black Hawk was at the ready to swoop into Afghanistan to rescue any special forces that might get into trouble.

After loading the helicopter from the crash site, the recovery team stopped to refuel at an airfield, Clarke said at a Pentagon news conference with Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem.

"While there, they took hostile fire, aborted the refueling, returned fire and departed," Clarke said.

They left the Black Hawk wreckage behind, and another recovery mission was underway, Clarke said.

"We don't know who was firing on our forces," said Stufflebeem, referring to the shooting as small-arms fire. Sufflebeem is deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

It was the most hostile act reported so far against Americans in Pakistan. The incident comes amid continuing demonstrations by Islamic militants there who want to expel Americans supporting the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan. The U.S. aim is to root out terrorist networks associated with Osama bin Laden, top suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.

Near one Pakistani base being used by U.S. personnel, police Tuesday erected blockades and sandbag bunkers against mass demonstrations after militants vowed to storm the facility. More than 100 people had been arrested by midmorning after a protest at Jacobabad, site of Shahbaz Air Base.

Members of the retrieval crews were taking the wreckage in a sling under another helicopter when they stopped to refuel, Clarke said. In order to land for the refueling, they had set the wreckage down and left it there for later pickup.

Clarke also said an American MH-47 Chinook helicopter lost its wheels when it hit a barrier while returning from the covert mission Friday night.

The Taliban militia that control most of Afghanistan have said that two U.S. helicopters were shot down during the raid, a claim Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld denied.

Video footage from the Al-Jazeera television network showed people gathered around several large wheels that the Taliban said were a downed helicopter's landing gear.

The wheels shown on television were, in fact, a U.S. MH-47, Clarke said Tuesday.

During Friday's mission, the helicopter's main landing gear came in contact with a barrier, which tore the wheels off, Clarke added.

She said there were no injuries to troops and no other damage to the helicopter.