Posted on 01/20/2007 6:31:11 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least 20 American service members were killed in military operations Saturday in the deadliest day for U.S. forces in two years, including 13 who died in a helicopter crash and five slain in an attack by militia fighters in the holy city of Karbala, military officials said.
Saturday's toll was the third-highest of any single day since the war began in March 2003, eclipsed only by 37 U.S. deaths on Jan. 26, 2005, and 28 on the third day of the U.S. invasion. U.S. authorities also announced two American combat deaths from Friday.
The heavy toll comes at a critical time of rising congressional opposition to President Bush's decision to dispatch 21,500 additional soldiers to the conflict to try to curb sectarian slaughter.
The military gave little information on the crash of the Army Black Hawk helicopter during good weather in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias for months in the province, around the city of Baqouba.
Lt. Col. Josslyn Aberle, a U.S. spokeswoman, said the cause of the crash had not been determined. Navy Capt. Frank Pascual, a member of a U.S. media relations team in the United Arab Emirates, told Al-Arabiya television that the helicopter was believed to have suffered technical troubles before going down.
Five U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday night when militia fighters attacked a provincial headquarters in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala, the military said in a statement.
The statement said "an illegally armed militia group" attacked the building with grenades, small arms and "indirect fire," which usually means mortars or rockets. The statement said three other soldiers were wounded repelling the attack.
"A meeting was taking place at the time of the attack to ensure the security of Shiite pilgrims participating in the Ashoura commemorations," said a statement from Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, deputy commander of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad.
Karbala is 50 miles south of Baghdad and thousands of Shiite pilgrims are flocking to the city to mark the 10-day Ashoura festival commemorating the death of one of Shiite Islam's most sacred saints, Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.
Brooks said Iraqi officials and security forces as well as U.S. troops were present at the meeting, but his statement did not mention other casualties from the attack. It said the headquarters had "been secured by coalition and Iraqi security forces."
Earlier, Karbala Gov. Akeel al-Khazaali had reported that U.S. troops raided the provincial headquarters looking for wanted men but left with no prisoners. But Brooks said that report was incorrect.
The general did not identify any group suspected of staging the attack, but residents reached by telephone had reported seeing military helicopters flying over the local headquarters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been accused of playing a big role in sectarian killings, has been hit repeatedly in recent weeks by operations in which key commanders have been captured or killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Also Saturday, roadside bombs killed a soldier in the capital and one in Nineveh province north of Baghdad.
The U.S. military also announced that combat Friday had killed an Army soldier in Nineveh province and a Marine in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital. The Marines often delay death reports, raising the possibility that Friday's toll was higher.
The helicopter crash was the fourth deadliest since the start of the war. The worst crash occurred on the war's deadliest day, Jan. 26, 2005, when a Marine transport helicopter crashed during a sandstorm in Iraq's western desert, killing 30 Marines and a sailor. On the same day, six other U.S. forces died in combat for a total of 37 deaths.
The second highest daily toll was on March 23, 2003 when 28 service members were killed as American forces were pushing toward Baghdad on the third day of the U.S.-led invasion.
Meanwhile, the first reinforcements of U.S. troops under the new Bush strategy have already started to flow into the Baghdad region. A brigade of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, part of the buildup, has arrived in Baghdad and will be ready to join the fresh drive to quell sectarian violence in the capital by the first of the month, the American military said Sunday.
The 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne consists of about 3,200 soldiers who will "assist Iraqi Security Forces to clear, control and retain key areas of the capital city in order to reduce violence and to set the conditions for a transition to full Iraqi control of security in the city," the military said in a statement.
In south Baghdad, U.S. helicopters dropped Iraqi police commandos into the dangerous Dora neighborhood to stage a raid on the Omar Brigade, an al-Qaida-linked Sunni militant group, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said.
Khalaf said 15 insurgents were killed and five captured during an intense battle at two abandoned houses taken over by Sunni gunmen, who he blamed for a series of kidnappings and killings in a bid to cleanse the once-mixed neighborhood of Shiite residents.
"We were provided with helicopter support by our friends in the multinational forces and we did not suffer any casualties," Khalaf said. U.S. aircraft gave covering fire, but the U.S. military did not respond to a request for comment on the raid.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, Iraqi police and hospital officials said a joint U.S.-Iraqi force searched a hospital in the volatile Sunni-dominated western neighborhood of Yarmouk.
Dr. Haqi Ismail, the hospital manager, said the raid occurred at 4:30 a.m.
"They were looking for someone, they searched all the rooms and the emergency unit," he said.
Al-Sadr's followers voiced increasing anger over Friday's capture of a senior aide to the radical cleric in a raid in eastern Baghdad.
Nassar al-Rubaie, the head of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, accused U.S. forces of trying to provoke the Sadrists into violence during the expanding campaign to quell Iraq's fighting.
"We condemn strongly the arrest of Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji. He is moderate and well-known as a media personality and always available in negotiations," al-Rubaie said. "He is a peaceful man and what was mentioned in the American release is lies and justification for the aggression against al-Sadr's movement."
U.S. and Iraqi forces reportedly detained al-Darraji during a raid on a mosque complex before dawn Friday.
The U.S. military, in a statement that did not name al-Darraji, said special Iraqi army forces operating with U.S. advisers had "captured a high-level, illegal armed group leader" in Baghdad's Baladiyat neighborhood, next to the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City. It said two other suspects were detained for further questioning.
Sadiq al-Rikabi, an al-Maliki adviser, told Al-Arabiya television the operation was not coordinated with Iraq's political leaders and was not part of the new security campaign.
Police reported at least 16 Iraqis slain in attacks Saturday. In addition, officials said 29 bodies were found in Baghdad and three in the northern city of Mosul, most of them showing signs of torture — a hallmark of killings by sectarian death squads.
That being said, Prayers for our troops and their families.
Do you think the Blackhawk was hit by a missle? They're not saying.
The crash that claimed 13 American lives appears to be a mishap and not from enemy action.
If our guys get killed with a gun or a missile, does it matter? They end up dead,we are in a police action while Muslims are fighting a civil are between the Sunni and Shia . Make no mistake It is a civil war, it's been going on for 1400 years.
FWIW, ABC news reported the Blackhawk was having mechanical problems prior to the crash.
It really is that simple.
I hate to break this to you, but the U.S. action in Iraq has gone on longer that this country's involvement in WWII and what do we have to show for it?
I couldn't agree with you more. Vietnam was the same thing, but we (Kennedy and Johnson) sold it as a "fight against communism". They sucked us (U.S. policy) into making it a stand against "communism", consequently the 'stakes were raised' and if we pulled out (which we wound up doing, because Nixon was smart enough to realize the mess those RATs got us into) then it took on another dimension.
We are seeing the same stupid crap play out again. YES!!! I relly mean what I say, because we went in to stop a madman with WMDs, now this quagmire is a "war against terror" (ooops, no, they' stopped calling it that now).
Look, I say let's get the hell out of there and let them kill each other off, but not before we give them ONE BIG BLAST OFF SEND OFF before we go, to pay them back for the 3000 we've lost so far!
The blood is on the hands of the Media and the Democrats. The enemy can see what's going on. We who work for a living don't have time to get out there in mass protest about how the Dems and the Media portrait the war and want us to lose.
I think you are confusing Civil with Tribal. These Tribal factions have been at war since the days of Muhammad.
I think it's high time we sent our soldiers and Marines out there to kick some behind (after brushing up on their "thirteen rules of engagement, of course).
Pentagon sees US war cost in Iraq rising
WASHINGTON: The steadily rising Iraq war price tag will reach about $8.4 billion a month this year, Pentagon spokesmen said on Thursday, as heavy replacement costs for lost, destroyed and aging equipment mount.
The Pentagon has been estimating last year’s costs for the increasingly unpopular war at about $8 billion a month, having increased from a monthly “burn rate” of around $4.4 billion during the first year of fighting in fiscal 2003.
[Article date January 20, 2007]
This war cannot be compared to any other as far as time.
If you want to compare the body count however, this war is a picnic compared to World War 2. (1.2 million casualties in 4 years)
Vietnam lasted 9 years and we lost 10 times what we have lost here. We either fight and win in Iraq, or we run for cover and fight here in the US later. But I will guarantee the body count to be 100 times greater if allow it to come here.
He was wrong, and so was I.
They will never unite. Sunni / Shia will always be at war.
I don't call it a quagmire, I just call it like it is, a mess. To be honest, our best of intentions will not mean a thing in the long run.
President Bush had better quit trying to win their hearts and minds and stomp the crap out of them, and he better do it immediately! Why send more of our troops in to be killed if we aren't going to give them the full force of the military to win this war!! He's more worried about them, than he is about our troops. Before anyone cries or whines that I'm being mean or anti-Bush, save your breath. I'm mad and I'm fed up seeing our troops die when we aren't giving them the support they need. The war is right, but the way he's fighting it is wrong!!
Prayers up for their loved ones. May God comfort them and give them strength in the difficult days ahead.
You are correct.
"Khalaf said 15 insurgents were killed and five captured in an intense battle at two abandoned houses taken over by Sunni gunmen,"
So, we know now that the worth of sparing two abandoned houses from 500lb bombs is five soliders. We can't keep spending that kind of capital for such little profit.
You are right, this is like the Catholics going against the Protestants, except they kill who doesn't agree with them.
They are united against us, they want us dead. Period.
If we leave and let the Mullahs take control, it will be Iran times 1000. They will gather strength, numbers and technology and go after us till we no longer exist.
Why is this fact so difficult for most people to see?
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