Even as casualties are unabated, we hear that there are fewer attacks on US troops. I think the time has come to ask how attacks are counted, and what counts as an attack and what doesn't. Has the definition of attack changed in any way in the past few months?

In Vietnam, the government only wanted to hear good news about the war, hence the notorious inflated enemy casualty counts. If the government wants to hear some good news, and enemy casualty counts are out of fashion, and the number of enemy weapons captured has not increased, I wonder if there would be any pressure not to count any encounter as a full fledged attack?

Yes, this is a different copter, not the one from a couple of days ago.

Two US troops are missing after their helicopter crashed into a river in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.


They said the aircraft came down in the Tigris which flows through the city, about 390 km northwest of the capital Baghdad.

US troops sealed off the area after the crash which occurred about 18:40 local time (15:40 GMT).

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties or whether the helicopter had come under fire. Both crew members are missing and a search operation is underway.