Two US marines killed in Iraq chopper crash

WASHINGTON, Apr 5 (Reuters) Two US marine pilots were killed when their Ah-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed in central Iraq early morning, central command said.

"Preliminary indications are that the crash was not a result of hostile fire.

The cause of the crash is under investigation," the statement said.

Names of those killed were being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

Blasts shake centre, South of Baghdad BAGHDAD, Apr 5 (Reuters) At least five large explosions hit an area close to central Baghdad shortly after dawn today while further blasts shook the Southern fringes of the Iraqi capital, a Reuters reporter said.

"The bombing has been very, very intense.

There are explosions to the Southeast, the Southwest and now near the centre," said correspondent Hassan Hafidh.

Much of the overnight bombing appeared to target the Eastern approaches to Baghdad.

The air raids came a day after US soldiers seized the city's airport in the Southwest their biggest prize yet in the 17-day-old war to oust Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Hafidh also reported a curtain of thick smoke stretching from the Southwest towards the northwest of Baghdad, a city of five million people.

" It's as though it was still night there.

The smoke is very thick.

I think they (the Iraqis) might be lighting more oil trenches," he said.

Iraqis lit oil trenches around the city at the start of the US-led war to topple Saddam, hoping to confuse pilots of US planes bombarding Baghdad.

Tests show powder not chemical weapon: US NEAR BAGHDAD, Apr 5 (Rreuters) A US officer said that first tests of a white powder found in thousands of boxes near the Iraqi capital indicated it was not a chemical weapon.

Colonel John Peabody told Reuters:"On first analysis it does not appear to be a chemical that could be used in a chemical weapons attack." Peabody, commander of the engineer brigade of the 3rd infantry division, said most of it appeared to be the chemical antidote atropine, and another chemical.

US forces said yesterday they had found thousands of boxes containing vials of unidentified liquid and powder as well as manuals on chemical warfare at two sites near Baghdad.

Iraq denies having any weapons of mass destruction.