A US Apache helicopter crashed west of Baghdad on Tuesday after being hit by ground fire in the area, witnesses said.  

There were no immediate reports on the fate of the crew.

The helicopter's wreckage was seen near a village between the restive town of Fallujah and Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib, the witnesses said.

The US military made no immediate comment about the reported helicopter crash.

Another Apache was shot down by gunmen on Sunday in the nearby area, approximately five km west of Baghdad international airport, killing its two crew members.

US soldier killed by gunmen in southern Iraq

One US soldier was killed and two others were wounded early Tuesday in an attack on a large convoy of US troops heading toward Najaf, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad, US military said.

A bomb attack on a US convoy killed one American soldier early on Tuesday and wounded another soldier as well as a civilian contractor, said an army spokesman.

The spokesman said the convoy was hit just after midnight by a roadside bomb, adding the wounded were taken on to Najaf and were in a stable condition.

US troops based north of Baghdad have been shifting further south to reinforce other foreign troops in the US-led coalition facing an insurgency by Shiite Muslim militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, it was reported.

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2004)