"Goddammit, I said things are getting better"

So let's see, 50, no make that 100, bodies dumped in the Euphrates; and now this...

A commercial helicopter contracted by the Pentagon was shot down in Iraq on Thursday and all nine people aboard are believed to have been killed, U.S. military sources said.

The aircraft was travelling just north of the capital when it was hit Thursday afternoon, possibly by a rocket-propelled grenade, a source said. Reuters Television received footage of an aircraft that had been shot down in the area and which was still on fire.

The sources said three crew and six passengers, all civilians, were on board the helicopter when it was hit. The crew of the Russian-built helicopter are thought to have been Bulgarians, a U.S. Embassy source told NBC News. The passengers' nationalities or names were not immediately known.