A Hawai'i-based Marine major was among four Marines killed Sunday when a Sea Knight helicopter plunged into a lake in Iraq's volatile Anbar province, the military said yesterday.

The death of Maj. Trane McCloud, 39, was confirmed yesterday by his father, Ron McCloud of Johnson City, Tenn. McCloud told the Elizabethton (Tenn.) Star newspaper that he was notified of his son's death by the Marine Corps.

The military has not publicly identified the casualties, and it was not known last night if the other dead Marines were assigned to Kane'ohe Bay.

Sunday's deaths raised to 13 the number of U.S. troops killed during a bloody weekend in Iraq.

A military news release said the emergency water landing resulted from mechanical difficulties. The incident was not a result of enemy action, the release said.

Ron McCloud said his son, who would have celebrated his 40th birthday Dec. 14, is survived by his wife and three children, ages 2, 5, and 6, who are in Hawai'i.

"He was a fine young man, loved the Marines and was the kind they (the Marines) look for," McCloud told the Elizabethton newspaper.

McCloud did not return calls to The Advertiser, and attempts to reach his daughter-in-law were unsuccessful yesterday.

Officials at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i at Kane'ohe Bay did not have any information to release yesterday, according to Maj. Chris Perrine, director of public affairs, and attempts to reach officials with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing were unsuccessful.

Trane McCloud had been a Marine for nearly 17 years and was sent to Iraq in September, according to his father.

"The loss of any of our men and women in Iraq is a tragedy," U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said in a statement. "A terrible wave of emptiness seems to wash over us when it is a member of our 'ohana, someone we know, someone from our home. Maj. Trane McCloud was lost Sunday in Anbar province in western Iraq. He leaves a wife and three children at the Kane'ohe Bay Marine base. He leaves family in Tennessee. And he leaves all of us in Hawai'i diminished by his passing."

The twin-rotor CH-46 was from the San Diego-based 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

It was the second military aircraft to go down in a week in Anbar, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents, although the military said mechanical problems rather than gunfire had forced Sunday's emergency landing.

"The pilots maintained control of the aircraft the entire time," the military said.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, would not provide details about the helicopter's mission or the reason for its forced landing, saying the incident was under investigation.

The helicopter had the ability to land and taxi in the water in case of emergency. It came down in Lake Qadisiyah, a huge reservoir behind the hydroelectric dam at Haditha on the Euphrates River.

A Marine was pulled from the water but could not be revived. The bodies of three missing Marines were found in a subsequent search, the military said. Twelve others aboard survived, according to the military.