Today’s New York Times could find no bloody and hopeless Iraq story to run in its A section. But the paper of record weighed in with some indispensable coverage all the same. Amazingly, a missile was fired in–of all places–a war zone:

A surface-to-air missile was fired on Saturday at an American Apache helicopter flying over the Sadr City section of Baghdad, American military officials said on Monday. The attack, which had not been disclosed previously, represents the first time that a helicopter has come under missile attack in Sadr City since fighting erupted in the Shiite enclave in March.

Kind of a strange and unwieldy milestone, if you ask me: the missile did not hit the helicopter and no one was injured. But! People saw this missile:

Soldiers from an American Army civil affairs unit in Sadr City saw the missile ascending and reported that it seemed to have been launched from north of Al Quds Street, where the American military is building a large concrete wall to prevent militia fighters from infiltrating south.

The missile was also seen by Iraqi volunteers in the “Sons of Iraq” program who provide security in Adhamiya, a nearby neighborhood. They found the missile’s body, which was turned over to American troops.

Tomorrow’s headline: “Spent Missile Taken to Scrap Yard.”