LOOKS A LOT LIKE A SHOOTING WAR TO ME.

A U.S. helicopter gunship was shot down in western Iraq on Thursday, just hours after U.S. fighter jets bombed "a terrorist training camp" in central Iraq.

The two incidents came as U.S. ground forces were winding up a massive sweep north of Baghdad aimed at finding those organizing attacks on occupation forces. Thursday's events marked a sharp escalation of U.S. military operations in central and western Iraq, where guerrillas have intensified their attacks on U.S. forces in recent weeks.

A statement by the U.S. Central Command said hostile forces shot down an AH-64 Apache helicopter belonging to the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. A pair of Apaches fired upon "irregular forces" at the crash site, while U.S. ground troops secured the site and rescued the uninjured two-man crew.

It was the first aircraft to be shot down by ground fire since the end of war to oust Saddam Hussein two months ago. Central Command did not say where it went down.

Hours earlier, U.S. planes attacked a site they described as a terror camp, 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Baghdad at about 1:45 a.m., U.S. Central Command said. A firefight then broke out, and one coalition soldier was slightly injured.

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