Iraq helicopter crash kills 8

"Recovery operations have been completed and there were nosurvivors," the U.S. military said in a statement.

One U.S. service member was among those on board theRussian-made Mi-17 aircraft, it said, adding that the cause ofthe crash in northern Iraq was under investigation.

An Iraqi Defence Ministry statement said the helicopter hadgone missing in a dust storm and the weather was the mostlikely cause of the crash.

It said the wreckage of the aircraft was found on Tuesdaynear Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad.

The helicopter was first reported missing on Monday nearSharqat, a desert area on the northern edges of Salahuddinprovince. Iraqi security officials had originally said twopilots were the only people on board.

An Iraqi military official in Salahuddin said thehelicopter's pilots had radioed that they planned to make aforced landing because of the dust storm.

The U.S. military said the last reported contacted with thehelicopter was at 1140 GMT on Monday.

Iraq is slowly rebuilding its air force, once one of theworld's largest, after the U.S.-led invasion that toppledSaddam Hussein in 2003. Its helicopters are mainly used forreconnaissance missions and to ferry troops.

Another Iraqi military helicopter was reported to havecrashed in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad on May 30 lastyear, killing five people on board.

Five people were also killed when an Iraqi helicoptercrashed during a training flight earlier last year.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Sabah al-Bazi inSharqat; Writing by Paul Tait, edited by Richard Meares)