Car Bomb Near Rebel Iraqi City Kills 7 U.S. Marines

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb attack on a U.S. patrol outside the rebel-held city of Falluja on Monday killed seven American marines and three Iraqi National Guardsmen, in the deadliest single attack on U.S. forces in five months.

The attack raises the official Pentagon U.S. death toll for the Iraq war to at least 988.

An Internet statement purportedly from a group holding two French hostages demanded a $5 million ransom for them and gave a 48-hour deadline to come up with the cash.

In an another blow to Iraq's U.S.-backed government, officials retracted a claim to have captured the most wanted Saddam Hussein aide still on the run in Iraq.

A day after several Iraqi officials reported the capture of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was sixth on a U.S. list of the 55 most wanted members of Saddam's regime and had a $10 million price on his head, the government had to make an embarrassing climbdown and say he had not been caught after all.

"The person that has been arrested, after appropriate medical tests, was not al-Douri but somebody related to him, who is also wanted by the state," the Interior Ministry said.

The confusion raised questions about the effectiveness and unity of Iraq's interim government as it prepares for national elections in January and tries to crush a stubborn insurgency and tackle a wave of kidnappings.

Mustafa Alani, senior consultant at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, said the confusion stemmed from a lack of collective leadership in the government, which is made up of members of several ethnic, religious and political groups.

"For Iraqis, it must have a psychologically negative effect on the credibility of the government," he said.

On Sunday, the Defense Ministry and two Iraqi ministers said Ibrahim had been captured near the town of Tikrit, Saddam's former powerbase, only to be contradicted by other officials.

The two ministers gave a detailed account of how Ibrahim had been captured after a battle in which 150 of his followers were killed or captured when they tried to thwart his arrest. But the regional National Guard commander in Tikrit, and U.S. forces in the area, said they knew nothing about any such battle and had no information on Ibrahim's capture.

There was no immediate explanation from the government on how so many top officials had been wrong on the reported capture. It was the second time the government has had to make a major retraction since it took over formal sovereignty in June.

Last month the government said police had entered a shrine in Najaf without a shot being fired to recapture it from rebel Shi'ite militiamen holed up inside. The report turned out to be false and the uprising in Najaf did not end until the following week, when Iraq's most revered cleric brokered a peace deal.

The authenticity of the Internet statement demanding a ransom for the French hostages could not be immediately verified. France had earlier said it was hopeful the men were alive and well and could be released soon.

Journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were seized on Aug. 20 by a militant group called the Islamic Army in Iraq, which initially demanded Paris scrap a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools. France refused that demand.

Five other foreign hostages held by other groups were reported to have been freed on Monday.

Jordan's foreign minister said four kidnapped drivers -- three from Jordan and one from Sudan -- were freed, and Ankara said a Turkish driver had also been released by a separate group after his firm pledged to stop working in Iraq. (Additional reporting by Omar Anwar and Suzannah Woods in Baghdad, Paul Carrel in Paris and Alistair Lyon in Amman)

prayer ***ping***

American soldiers surveying the site of a massive car bomb attack today on the outskirts of Falluja, Iraq.

Car Bomb Kills 7 U.S. Marines and 3 Iraqi Soldiers Near Falluja (NY Times)

By CHRISTINE HAUSER
A car bomb killed seven American marines and three Iraqi national guardsmen today on the outskirts of the Iraqi town of Falluja, the American military said, in one of the deadliest single attacks on American forces and their Iraqi counterparts in the volatile Anbar province in months.

The attack underscored the determination of insurgents to strike American forces and their Iraqi allies belonging to the new government in Baghdad.

The military said in a statement that the bomb attack indicated just how "inherently dangerous" the Sunni-dominated province continues to be for American forces that are conducting joint operations to support newly formed Iraqi units trying to take over security. The American marines killed were with the First Marine Expeditionary Force, the statement said.

The new Iraqi government has been trying to prop up a security infrastructure since the formal handover of sovereignty in June.

Today the government said that a man who was captured over the weekend was not Izzat Ibrahim, the most wanted member of Saddam's Hussein's inner circle still at large, contrary to what officials had initially believed.

"The person that has been arrested, after appropriate medical tests, was not al-Douri but somebody related to him, who is also wanted by the state," the Interior Ministry said, in a statment quoted by Reuters.

Mr. Ibrahim was said to have been captured in a clinic near Ad Dwar, his hometown, north of Baghdad and not far from the site where Saddam Hussein was captured on Dec. 13. The capture was made after a shootout that one Iraqi official has said left as many as 70 people dead and 80 wounded.

Like other cities in Iraq where American troops have fought insurgents and then withdrawn, Falluja and other towns in the Anbar province remain effectively outside of the direct control of Iraqi government troops and American forces.

The American military withdrew from Falluja, a city of about 250,000 people 35 miles west of Baghdad, in April after an offensive in which about 600 Iraqis were reported killed and mounting casualty figures caused Iraqi politicians to withdraw their support.

Since then, local officials have reported dozens of Iraqis killed in American airstrikes on targets they said were safe houses used by guerrillas, especially those loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq and the suspected mastermind of dozens of suicide attacks.

The strength of the explosion that killed the seven marines today sent the engine from the vehicle used in the bombing flying a good distance from the site, a military official said on condition of anonymity, according to The Associated Press.

Witnesses said the attack took place nine miles north of Falluja and destroyed two Humvees, The A.P. reported.

American and Iraqi officials have said that the decision in April to retreat from Falluja inadvertently created a safe haven for terrorists and insurgents there. But officials are reluctant to send American troops back into the city for fear of touching off another uprising.

Falluja, Ramadi, and much of Anbar Province are now controlled by fundamentalist militias, with American troops confined mainly to heavily protected fortifications on the desert's edge.

Police officers, national guardsmen and others working on behalf of the American-backed government have been frequent targets of attacks by insurgents.

The attack outside of Falluja followed a bloody weekend of violence in Iraq as insurgents press their campaign against the interim government and American forces occupying the country.

A suicide car bombing killed at least 14 policemen and three civilians outside a police academy in Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Saturday.

And in Tal Afar, 30 miles west of Mosul, American and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters attacked what the Army said was a "known terrorist cell," killing at least 11 Iraqis and wounding 50 to 70, mostly civilians, the local hospital director said in an interview.

Iraq is now a sovereign nation, but our military leaders have always held the right to defend their own. Sometimes evildoers get lucky. Not often. Seldom more than once.

Pres. Bush is one of the few authorities on the world stage standing against this enemy.

And the enemy knows just how to provoke and divide us. It is not so difficult to set off a car bomb in a nation the size of California, with 25 million residents and 10,000 or so evildoers working to destroy their hopes for freedom.

We don't hear about the successful daily missions of our troops and Iraqi security forces, the number of enemies they've taken out this week, the Iraqi neighbors who provide intel, the Iraqis who continue to volunteer to serve, knowing the risks.

What a different war this would be if our global appeasers gave their mighty pens to the two groups that know and matter most - our troops, and Saddam's victims.

We can't count on our free press to help our side in this war. THAT, imho, is a war crime.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.