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A U.S. Army Apache attack helicopter was shot down Thursday in western Iraq, apparently by hostile fire, a military statement said.

Coalition troops were able to recover its uninjured two-member crew almost immediately and secure the crash site, said the statement released by the U.S. Central Command.

Meanwhile, coalition ground forces continued a massive sweep north of Baghdad Thursday aimed at finding those organizing attacks on the occupation forces.

A statement by the U.S. Central Command said a firefight broke out after an airstrike in central Iraq, when U.S. forces, including elements of the 101st Airborne Division, attacked a site they described as a terrorist training camp 95 miles north of Baghdad. One coalition soldier was slightly injured.

The statement did not specify where the operation was taking place, or whether there were Iraqi casualties.

Elsewhere, a combined sweep, dubbed "Operation Peninsula Strike," continued for a third day, sending thousands of American troops through a region of several square miles centered on the Tigris River town of Duluiyah 45 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Ryan Fitzgerald said.

The task force is "made up of U.S. Army infantry, armor, some Air Force aircraft, engineers, a large group of folks that make up a task force," he told CBS Radio News.

In other developments:

* U.S jets bombed "a terrorist training camp" in central Iraq Thursday. U.S. Central Command says a firefight broke out after the air strike about 95 miles north of Baghdad. One coalition soldier was slightly injured.

* American soldiers killed an Iraqi who attacked their positions Wednesday. A U.S. officer says two U.S. soldiers were wounded during the fight when their automatic grenade launcher malfunctioned. Two Iraqi men armed with assault rifles attacked a position about 45 miles west of Baghdad.

* The director of one Baghdad hospital says many of the civilians killed during the war lost their lives in the final days of the U-S push into Baghdad. An Associated Press count finds more than 32-hundred Iraqi civilians dead -- but that's being called a conservative estimate of how many civilians died during the war. The AP surveyed 60 of Iraq's 124 hospitals. Doctors said most of the civilians who died were victims of U.S. gunfire and bombs.

* U.S. Central Command has launched a criminal investigation into the death of an Iraqi prisoner who was found dead last week at a coalition prisoner of war camp near Nasiriyah. It's the first announced U-S probe involving the death of an Iraqi prisoner of war. The British defense ministry is investigating the deaths of two other Iraqi POW's under British control.

* British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he won't appear before one of two parliamentary committees investigating how the government used intelligence to justify the war on Iraq. Blair says he won't attend hearings of the foreign affairs committee, which meets in public. But he is expected to give evidence to the intelligence committee, which meets in private.

* Congressional Republicans on Wednesday rejected Democratic calls for a formal investigation into intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs, contending that such a probe could harm intelligence agencies' work.

"These folks are people who are threatening coalition forces and the Iraqi people," said Fitzgerald. "So far we've captured nearly 400 suspects, we've gotten several weapons systems and a good deal of ammunition."

Fitzgerald said he had no information on the capture of wanted Baathists from the list of top 55 fugitives, which includes Saddam Hussein and his two sons. He said interrogators armed with intelligence on particular suspects were still questioning those captured. Prisoners deemed not hostile will be released, he said.

Interrogators are "working with information that has directed the finger toward these suspects," Fitzgerald said. "If we believe they're dangerous and will cause problems for the Iraqi people or coalition forces, we'll keep them for further information."

No Americans have been killed in the operation, Fitzgerald said. He could not confirm reports of deaths among the Iraqis.

The region north and west of Baghdad is part of the so-called Sunni triangle, the heartland of support for Saddam's now banned Baath Party and not far from the ex-leader's hometown of Tikrit.

In Habaniyah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, a top U.S. commander said his men have made significant progress in restoring security.

"There are three elements we are having to deal with, first armed bandits, second former Baath Party officials are paying people to attack us, and then the Fedayeen," said Maj. Gen. Buford Blount III, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. The Fedayeen were a paramilitary force set up by Saddam's regime.

U.S. intelligence has made progress in figuring out which groups are responsible for which attacks and U.S. troops are working to dismantle them, Blount said.

The ambushers were using effective guerrilla tactics that allowed them to accurately strike U.S. military vehicles and escape. They also appeared to be coordinating raids with signaling devices, including flares, military officials said.

Duluiyah, largely untouched during the war, is said to be a likely place of refuge for Saddam die-hard fighters.

In the first stage of "Peninsula Strike," soldiers moved into attack and reconnaissance positions, while seeking help from local police, the command said.

The troops from Task Force "Ironhorse" then began air, land and water-based raids to block escape routes.

A curfew was imposed on the area near the town of Ballad, 37 miles north of Baghdad, from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m.

"The fewer people that you have out and about, the safer it's going to be for our folks over there and for the civilians who could potentially be in harm's way," said Fitzgerald.

The war in Iraq is only 99.999% over. USA soldiers are still being killed and equipments is still being lost. We still have a ways to go to get that 0.001%.