Nine U.S. troops killed in attacks in Iraq ( 1/6/05)

[scott.voigt]

Government extends state of emergency for a month

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed seven U.S. soldiers Thursday in northwest Baghdad, while two Marines were killed in action in western Iraq, the deadliest day for U.S. forces since a suicide attack last month, the U.S. military said.

The soldiers with Task Force Baghdad were on a routine security patrol when the attack occurred at 6 p.m. local time, said Capt. Patricia Brewer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military. Everyone in the vehicle was killed.

No other details were immediately available. Iraq’s insurgents have frequently targeted U.S. troops with crude explosives planted in roads and detonated remotely as patrols pass.

The two Marines were killed in action Thursday in the volatile western Anbar province, the military said. The Marines typically do not give details of how or where their troops are killed for fear of compromising security.

The nine deaths made it the highest single-day toll for the U.S. military in Iraq since a suicide bombing at a mess tent in Mosul on Dec. 21 killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers and three U.S. contractors.

Several U.S. troops have been killed in recent days in Baghdad and in Anbar, which is home to the volatile city of Fallujah. Tuesday, five U.S. troops were killed: three Task Force Baghdad soldiers who died in a roadside bombing, one who was slain in Anbar and another who died in Balad, north of Baghdad.

The military said the names of the troops who died Thursday were being withheld until their families could be notified.

The deaths Thursday brought the number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to 1,349, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,062 died as a result of hostile action.

State of emergency extended
The attacks were another sign that the U.S. military has not been able to subdue violence ahead of landmark elections set for Jan. 30.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, acknowledged earlier Thursday that security was poor in four of 18 Iraqi provinces. But he said at a briefing in the capital that delaying the vote would only increase the danger.

“I can’t guarantee that every person in Iraq that wants to vote, goes to a polling booth and can do that safely,” Metz said. “We’re going to do everything possible to create that condition for them, but we are fighting an enemy who cares less who he kills, when he kills and how he kills.

“A delay in the elections just gives the thugs and terrorists more time to continue their intimidation, their cruelty, their brutal murders of innocent people.”

Because of the escalating violence, the Iraqi government extended by another month the state of emergency it announced two months ago except for the Kurdish-run areas north of the country, the government said in a statement. The decree includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government additional power to make arrests and launch operations.

“We expect some escalation [of attacks] here and there” ahead of the elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said. “This is a precaution to protect the Iraqi people as well as the elections.”

If the election takes place, it is expected to shift power to the Shiite Muslim community, an estimated 60 percent of the population that has been dominated by the Sunni Arab minority since modern Iraq was created after World War I.

Bodies of 18 Shiites found
Meanwhile, the bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shiites killed last month while seeking work at a U.S. base were found Wednesday in a field near Mosul, police said Thursday.

Police said the insurgents shot the 18 men, who ranged in age from 14 to 20, execution style on Dec. 8 after stopping their two minibuses about 30 miles west of the volatile city, 225 miles north of Baghdad.

Their hands were tied behind their backs, and each was shot in the head, police said. All the men were Shiites from Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at a U.S. base in Mosul.

As foreign ministers from Iraq’s neighboring states met Thursday in Jordan, King Abdullah II tried to temper remarks that reflected Arab fears that the elections would produce a Shiite-dominated Iraq that would align itself with Persian Iran.

In an interview published Thursday by the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam, the king stressed that he was not opposed to Shiites and said his comments that Iran was trying to influence the vote and create a “Shiite crescent” had been misinterpreted.

Iran, a predominantly Shiite state, called the remarks an insult to Iraqis. It was the only neighbor that did not send its foreign minister to the meeting, which was intended to urge Iraqis to defy boycott calls and take part in the elections.

Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, echoed Abdullah’s claims Thursday, saying the world should not fear that Iraq’s elections would set up an Iranian-style government in Baghdad.

“I believe those fears are exaggerated and misplaced,” Zebari told The Associated Press before the ministerial meeting. “We have a political [process] that checks and balances” domination by a religious group.

Other developments

The bodies of three Jordanian truck drivers shot in the head were discovered on the outskirts of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, an AP photographer at the scene said Thursday. A note placed on one of the bodies warned: “This is the fate of anyone who cooperates with the Americans.”
Police discovered two beheaded Iraqi policemen, their bodies charred from a fire, on Thursday in a house in Basra used by election officials to organize the national vote, a police official said on condition of anonymity.
Gunmen shot dead the police chief of Baghdad’s Shiite slum of Sadr City, Brig. Gen. Karim Hussein, as he was driving his car in another district of the capital, police said.
Iraqi police said a French journalist had been missing since Wednesday and may have been kidnapped. The French newspaper Liberation said the journalist, identified as Florence Aubenas, had been working for the paper in Iraq since December.
In the central town of Adwar, soldiers of the U.S. First Infantry Division detained four people who admitted they participated in an attack against Iraqi security forces last month, the U.S. military said.
The Iraqi government announced Thursday that it had paid a total $1.3 million in rewards for people who gave information that led to the capture of more than 500 insurgents in the past six months. The statement did not specify exact sums paid to individual informants.
Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksandr Kuzmuk, traveled Thursday to Iraq for a two-day visit to discuss reducing the country’s 1,650-strong force ahead of a complete withdrawal from the U.S.-led coalition by year’s end.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6727646/

[odannyboy]

Those 7 seven soldiers killed today were all in a Bradley which was blown up by either an IED or a suicide bomber. A deadly day for our soldiers, and the insurgents are stepping up the terror tactics. We need to turn the country into a Shi'ite ruled nation and let them take out the Sunni's, only problem is they probably cannot do it without our help.

[Hoss68]

It's getting harder and harder to read these stories... I read the ones Scott posted earlier...

Rest in Peace Brothers...

[se0sea]

the bomb was buried in the road,and it was a romote devise. US commander said that as they drove over,it detonated,killed all in the Bradley.
God rest their souls and bless their families.

[scott.voigt]

This is yet another demonstration of how little a difference armor can make

rest in peace my brothers

[Hoss68]

I read and have posted all of the Casualty Releases since March...

IMO~ Most are vehicle accidents and IED's... Or a combination.

[odannyboy]

Originally Posted by Hoss68

I read and have posted all of the Casualty Releases since March...

IMO~ Most are vehicle accidents and IED's... Or a combination.

Agreed. They are daisy chaining multiple artillery warheads, buried under the road, and detonating them when vehicle roll over them. They knew that they had enough explosives to penetrate a Bradley in this latest round of killing.

Putting side armor on Humvee's is one thing if they are shooting RPG's, but when burying these underground then armor under the vehicle proves to be the weak link in whether or not there are more KIA. Deposing a brutal dictator, spending hundred of billions and having to deal with daily attacks. Something aint right.