U.S. copter with 7 aboard crashes in Iraq

A U.S. MILITARY helicopter carrying seven people crashed in western Iraq near the border with Syria Thursday, according to the Pentagon.

“Rescue teams are responding to the scene of the downed aircraft at this time,” a Defense Department spokesman told the Daily News. “An investigation will be initiated to determine the cause of the incident.”

Multiple U.S. defense officials told CNN that the downed aircraft is a HH-60 Black Hawk chopper carrying seven personnel.

The helicopter crashed near al Qaim in the western Anbar Province, ABC News reported. All were U.S. Air Force airmen, according to ABC News. The chopper was not on a combat mission, and initial reports did not indicate it was shot down, the sources said.

A U.S.-led military coalition comprising Kurdish and Syrian rebels declared in October that they had vanquished the Islamic State after capturing the terrorist network's self-proclaimed Syrian capital of Raqqa.

Since the U.S.-led military campaign began in late 2014, ISIS has lost nearly all territory of its self-professed caliphate in Iraq and Syria.