Times Reporter And Politician Who Made Emotional Plea To Save Yazidis Injured In Iraqi Helicopter Crash

The New York Times reported Tuesday that one of its own reporters, Alissa Rubin, was injured in a helicopter crash that killed the pilot and left other passengers injured.

Rubin, the paper's Paris bureau chief and a veteran war correspondent, told the Times she "suffered an apparent concussion and broken wrists but was conscious."

According to Iraqi Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Rubin wasn't the only prominent passenger on board the Mi-17 Iraqi military helicopter. In a statement, he told the Associated Press Iraqi parliamentarian Vian Dakheel, who recently drew worldwide headlines with her impassioned plea to stop the "genocide" against the Yazidi religious sect, was also injured.

The Iraqi statement said the helicopter accidentally crashed while delivering aid to the mountain where many Yazidis have been held captive by the jihdadist forces known as the Islamic State.

"The helicopter delivered aid to the people stranded in Sinjar and too many people boarded it and it hit the mountain during takeoff," the statement said.