Two US soldiers killed and one wounded near in Iraq

2004 1/22 | serurier

[serurier]

Three US soldiers killed and one wounded near in Iraq

[serurier]

This message from yahoo.com

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three US soldiers were killed and one wounded near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, in a rocket or mortar attack at 6.30 pm (1530 GMT), the US military revealed.

"Three US soldiers were killed Wednesday and one wounded near Baquba in a mortar or rocket attack," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Williams told AFP.

A total of 235 US troops have now been killed in the low-level war of attrition with rebels since US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) declared major fighting over on May 1.

More than 500 US troops have been killed by hostile action, accident or suicide since the US-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) began last March.

Three died on Saturday when a patrol hunting for landmines was struck by an explosive device near Baghdad. Two Iraqi paramilitaries were also killed in the attack which demolished a US Bradley fighting vehicle.

[serurier]

It's a very bad message , I don't know : Baquba is a small city , why army in there die more soldier ? Baquba support saddam , why army can't Attack they ( B-52, A-10, F-16 , M270,M109...... )?

[serurier]

this new message about this event :

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded in a mortar and rocket attack on a U.S. military base near the restive central Iraq (news - web sites) town of Baquba, the U.S. Army said Thursday.



"Last evening, we had a mortar attack on a forward operating base near Baquba which killed two soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division and critically wounded another," Major Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said.


She said rockets were also used in the attack, which lightly wounded several other soldiers, who were quickly returned to duty. The critically wounded soldier was in a stable condition, Aberle said.


"We were able to identify where the attack came from and responded by firing artillery shells at the location. There are no indications, however, that any insurgents were killed in our assault."


Iraqi insurgents have repeatedly attacked U.S. military installations around the town of Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad, in recent months. U.S. forces carry out nearly daily raids in the area in an effort to eliminate the guerrilla threat.


The latest deaths bring to 349 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq since the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was launched in March last year.

[serurier]

Two American Soldiers Killed in Iraq
About this event new message :

TIKRIT, Iraq - Insurgents fired mortars at an American military encampment in central Iraq (news - web sites), killing two soldiers and critically wounding another, the military said Thursday.



The attack happened Wednesday night on a forward operating base in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, military spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle said.


The wounded soldier was evacuated to a support hospital, where he is in critical but stable condition, she said.


The three soldiers were standing outside the tactical operations center when a series of mortars and rockets hit, she said. The attack also damaged vehicles.


U.S. forces launched a counterattack but there was no indication the insurgents sustained casualties, she said.

[serurier]

I think , U.S. army must use heavy weapon attack Baqouba and FALLUJA , It's for more Iraq people and U.S. soldier's security .

[serurier]

Maybe army need change base security plan .

[serurier]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three US soldiers were killed and another wounded near Baquba, while four Iraqi women going to work at a US base were mown down by guerrillas, the US military and survivors revealed.


AFP/File Photo




Latest headlines:
· Bush to Reassure Americans on Tax Cuts, Iraq
Reuters - Tue Jan 20, 5:07 PM ET
· Iraq Cleric Could Force Tranfer of Power
AP - Tue Jan 20, 5:04 PM ET
· UAE, Qatar to Waive Most Iraq Debt After Baker Trip
Reuters - Tue Jan 20, 4:51 PM ET
Special Coverage





The violence came as the bloody insurgency, fighting to stay alive after the December 13 capture of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), sets its sights more and more on civilians working for the US-led coalition.


It followed three days of Shiite protests which struck fear in the hearts of Iraqi Kurds and Sunnis.


The latest US casualties occurred near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, in a rocket or mortar attack Wednesday night, the US military said Thursday.


The deaths pushed to 235 American soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) declared major combat in Iraq (news - web sites) over on May 1.


Earlier Wednesday, four Christian laundresses were killed and five others wounded when assailants raked their minibus with gunfire west of Baghdad. They were going to work at a US base near Habbaniyah.


"It is possible that the attackers were terrorists who wanted to hit us because we have good relations with the Americans," said survivor Suzanne Azat.


Mussa Adam Abu Shaba, whose sister Nadia was killed, also believes the murderers were probably insurgents battling the continued US occupation of Iraq.


"Perhaps they were thiefs, but there is certainly a very strong possibility that they were terrorists. I heard that the driver had received threats," he said.


A doctor at the Ramadi hospital morgue said the four women were killed by Kalashnikov fire, showing AFP one of the bullets cut out from the bodies. He refused to give his name.


Kalashnikov assault rifles are a weapon favoured by guerrillas.


The women were employed by Balkans-based Ecolog, contracted by US firm Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of American energy conglomerate Halliburton, formerly run by US Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites).


But the US military said the incident was an Iraqi matter and referred all queries to the local police or the interim interior ministry.


After a New Year's Eve car bombing of a packed Baghdad restaurant killed five Iraqis, US military officials warned the blast showed insurgents were now conducting large-scale attacks on civilians.


On Sunday, a suicide bomber blew up a truck outside the Baghdad headquarters of the coalition, killing at least 24 people, most of them Iraqis queuing up to work at the symbol to American power in Iraq.


In southern Iraq, a major in the paramilitary Spanish civil guard was shot in the forehead and seriously wounded in an "anti-terrorist operation" early Thursday, Spain's defence ministry said.


Major Gonzalo Perez Garcia, chief of security for the Spanish-Latin American Plus Ultra brigade in the coalition, and an Iraqi police officer were shot during a raid on a house at Hamsa, near the town of Diwaniyah.





Ethnic divisions have been also tense after Shiites protested for three days against US plans for transferring power in Iraq, as US and Iraqi leaders again snubbed their demand for general elections before a scheduled June handover.

"The Shia want to make sure that they dominate; the sooner the elections, the sooner they will dominate," a high-ranking coalition official said.

"It's raw politics."

Leading the beacon for the Shiites has been Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a top cleric noted until now for his conservatism and aversion to politics.

In the coalition's eyes, the caucus process designed by it to select a transitional national assembly will inevitably wind up with a Shiite majority in any case.

But faced with street protests and threats of greater troubles ahead, the coalition is looking to steer a middle course between the Shiite giant awakening from its long slumber and the weaker Sunnis and Kurds.

The Shiites' demands are "worrying to the Kurds and Sunnis," the high-ranking official said. On Wednesday, Sunni religious leaders and Kurdish politicians rejected Shiite calls for early elections.

Meanwhile, it emerged Iraq's new army will be incapable of defending the country on its own for several years because of the huge cost of training and equipping such a force, said the US general in charge of the training.

Major General Paul Eaton said it would take a minimum of three to five years to field an indigenous force capable of defending the country against attack -- and then only if spending on pressing social needs were sacrificed.

[serurier]

New message about this event :

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a barrage against a camp in central Iraq (news - web sites), and the security chief of Spanish troops was seriously wounded Thursday during a raid south of the capital, officials said.


AP Photo


AFP
Slideshow: Iraq

Shiites Clamor for Saddam to Be Executed
(AP Video)




Latest headlines:
· Bush to Reassure Americans on Tax Cuts, Iraq
Reuters - Tue Jan 20, 5:07 PM ET
· Iraq Cleric Could Force Tranfer of Power
AP - Tue Jan 20, 5:04 PM ET
· UAE, Qatar to Waive Most Iraq Debt After Baker Trip
Reuters - Tue Jan 20, 4:51 PM ET
Special Coverage





Elsewhere, gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Iraqi women to work at a U.S. military base, killing three of them, relatives said. it appeared the women were targeted because they worked for the occupation force.


Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said insurgents fired mortars and rockets at a U.S. military encampment outside the town of Baqouba on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and critically injuring another. The three were standing outside the operations center when the projectiles landed, she said.


Their deaths brought to 505 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the U.S.-led coalition launched the Iraq war March 20.


Also Thursday, the 23-year-old son of a former senior official from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s Baath party was slain in the southern city of Basra by an unidentified gunman, police said.


The attack on the women happened in Fallujah when the assailants opened fire on the victims' minibus, the driver's brother, Shan Serkis, told The Associated Press. He said the driver, Khajiq Serkis, was injured.


All the victims worked at a nearby U.S. military base, the women as cleaners and Serkis as a mechanic and driver.


Former Baath party members and other Saddam loyalists are believed behind most of the guerrilla attacks against the U.S.-led coalition forces, often setting off car bombs and roadside explosives that have killed hundreds of Iraqi men and women.


Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, and the Baqouba are in the so-called Sunni Triangle stronghold of Saddam supporters.


U.S. forces have struggled to bring peace in the country while racing to meet its promise to end its occupation and hand over power to a transitional Iraqi government on July 1.


The plan calls for selecting a legislature through caucuses in Iraq's 18 provinces in May, which would later appoint a provisional government that will prepare for full elections in 2005.


The plan, sealed in a Nov. 15 agreement with the temporary Iraqi Governing Council, has run into trouble because of opposition from Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, whose demand for early elections has found wide support among Iraqis.


On Wednesday, Shiite leaders and coalition officials signaled flexibility on holding early elections, with both sides suggesting they'll follow any U.N. recommendation, Iraqi and Western officials said.


Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite member of the Iraqi Governing Council, said he spoke to al-Sistani and came away with the impression that the cleric will accept the verdict of the United Nations (news - web sites), if it tells him elections cannot be organized before July 1.


"One of the parties may be convinced of what the other party says," al-Jaafari told reporters Wednesday. "Whatever the outcome, if they reach an agreement, I think al-Sistani will accept it."


The British government, the strongest U.S. coalition partner, is also willing to consider direct elections if the U.N. team determines they're practical, officials told The Associated Press.


U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) has said he is considering sending an experts team to Iraq. Annan is primarily concerned with the safety of any U.N. staff who would head to Iraq. The secretary-general ordered all international staff to leave Iraq in October following two bombings at U.N. headquarters — including one on Aug. 19 that killed 22 people.





Coalition officials maintain there is not enough time to hold legislative elections before the power transfer because of the unstable security situation and the absence of voter rolls and an election law.

U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer has offered to broaden participation in the caucus system to accommodate al-Sistani's demands but insists that the July 1 deadline for transferring sovereignty is final.

Tens of thousands of Shiites have marched in Baghdad and other cities this week in support of al-Sistani's demand.

Iraqi Shiites, who form an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, have generally refrained from attacks on coalition forces. Most of the insurgents are believed to be Arab Sunnis, including members of the Baath party.

In the southern city of Diwaniya, 120 miles south of Baghdad, Spanish Civil Guard commander Gonzalo Perez Garcia was shot in the head after a pre-dawn raid with Iraqi police at the home of a suspected terrorist leader Thursday, according to a Spanish Defense Ministry statement in Madrid. He was taken to a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad in a serious condition.

_

Associated Press correspondents Sabah Jerges and Nadia Abou El-Magd contributed to this report from Baghdad

vars/vj

[serurier]

We can't forget that soldier in Iraq , they for Iraq's freedom fight !

[serurier]

We can't forget that soldier in Iraq , they for Iraq's freedom fight !

[DefCon]

You talk to you not good sign.
Army weapon make correction of scene on target.
Many time find insurgent source.
Make time for destroy.

[leadpenny]

Thank you for the updates. Have you been to Iraq?

[leadpenny]

Ned Colt reporting on MSNBC is saying two soldiers killed in that attack. (7am E)

[LS]

If this is true, I think these are the first U.S. soldiers to die in Iraq in what, a week? Slowly but surely, the violence is slowing down and the attacks becoming less effective against our guys.

[4everontheRight]

God bless their families and all our troops!!

[smiley]

Damn!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Three US soldiers were killed and another wounded near Baquba, while four Iraqi women going to work at a US base were mown down by guerrillas, the US military and survivors revealed.

I'm sorry. This should have been the first ping of the day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

   

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Prayers going out for the friends and loved ones of our three fallen 4th Infantry Division Soldiers.

[OpusatFR]

God rest their souls and comfort their families, but we had six murders here, in my city, in one day and that isn't unusual.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

FoxNews reported three Soldiers killed.

AP 22 min. ago, still reporting 2 Soldiers killed and one critically wounded.

Prayers for our wounded Soldier.

Prayer request that our press honor our fallen by remembering their daily accomplishments along with the litany of negative news they present to the world daily.

Prayers also for help to be able to forgive a free press that endangers our troops and emboldens our enemies with such unbalanced reporting daily.

[serurier]

I'm sorry I in China .