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June 3, 2007
14 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Over Weekend
By RICHARD A. OPPEL, Jr. and KHALID W. HASSAN
BAGHDAD, June 3 - The escalating pace of troop deaths continued over the
weekend as 14 more American servicemen were reported killed in Iraq, all but
one from makeshift bombs that insurgents have been employing with greater
lethality against American soldiers and armored vehicles.
At least 21 soldiers and an interpreter were also wounded.
All of the attacks on American troops reported on Sunday by the military
command in Baghdad occurred around the capital or in the restive Sunni
insurgent areas to the north the provinces of Diyala, Salahaddin and Ninewa.
The deadliest attack killed four soldiers on Sunday after their vehicle was
struck by a roadside bomb as they took part in an operation to seal off and
search an area northwest of Baghdad.
The attacks came as Sunni Arab insurgents, gunmen and Shiite Mahdi Army
fighters undertook a brazen series of attacks throughout the country that
further underscored the country's pervasive violence. American forces
suffered heavy casualties around Baghdad and Sunni insurgent enclaves
further north, while Iraqi and American forces stepped up offensives against
Mahdi Army strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
In Mosul, a Christian priest was gunned down as he left his church after
finishing Sunday services. In Baghdad, a director of the Iraqi Central Bank
and his brother were shot to death in the dangerous neighborhood of Amel.
Thirty-one corpses were found scattered about the capital, where sectarian
murders have once again been on the rise.
Insurgents struck repeatedly in Diyala, the militant-dominated province that
borders Baghdad, Iran and Kurdistan. A suicide car bomber parked at a
crowded marketplace killed nine people in Balad Ruz. Insurgents set up a
fake checkpoint near Baquba, the provincial capital, and raked a bus with
gunfire, killing three. And south of Baquba, nine corpses were found
handcuffed and shot.
A vehicle packed with explosives and chemicals detonated near the gate of
the main American military installation in Diyala, Forward Operating Base
Warhorse, on the northwest outskirts of Baquba. No soldiers were injured,
the military said, but many later complained of "minor respiratory
irritations and watery eyes."
A Mahdi Army commander south of Baghdad in Diwaniyah led Iraqi police on a
lengthy chase and eluded his pursuers before fierce fighting broke out that
left at least three people dead and wounded a dozen more, the Iraqi police
said.
American-led troops arrested 10 Mahdi Army fighters during an operation in
Numaniya, west of Kut, in what an Iraqi security official described as the
latest offensive aimed at Mahdi fighters in the region. The police also
discovered two corpses bearing signs of torture in Numaniya.
American officials in Baghdad said soldiers killed four men and arrested six
more who they said were caught setting up rockets to attack the Green Zone,
the heavily fortified compound where the American leadership and Iraqi
government is headquartered. After Apache Longbow helicopters strafed the
men setting up the rockets, soldiers on the ground pursued and arrested six
of the men after they fled and sought refuge at a home in Sadr City.
At least 15 American servicemen have been killed in the first three days of
June, a pace that exceeds the fatality rate in May that saw 127 troops die
in the highest monthly tally since the Marine and Army invasion of Falluja
two-and-a-half years ago.
14 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Over Weekend
By RICHARD A. OPPEL, Jr. and KHALID W. HASSAN
BAGHDAD, June 3 - The escalating pace of troop deaths continued over the
weekend as 14 more American servicemen were reported killed in Iraq, all but
one from makeshift bombs that insurgents have been employing with greater
lethality against American soldiers and armored vehicles.
At least 21 soldiers and an interpreter were also wounded.
All of the attacks on American troops reported on Sunday by the military
command in Baghdad occurred around the capital or in the restive Sunni
insurgent areas to the north the provinces of Diyala, Salahaddin and Ninewa.
The deadliest attack killed four soldiers on Sunday after their vehicle was
struck by a roadside bomb as they took part in an operation to seal off and
search an area northwest of Baghdad.
The attacks came as Sunni Arab insurgents, gunmen and Shiite Mahdi Army
fighters undertook a brazen series of attacks throughout the country that
further underscored the country's pervasive violence. American forces
suffered heavy casualties around Baghdad and Sunni insurgent enclaves
further north, while Iraqi and American forces stepped up offensives against
Mahdi Army strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq.
In Mosul, a Christian priest was gunned down as he left his church after
finishing Sunday services. In Baghdad, a director of the Iraqi Central Bank
and his brother were shot to death in the dangerous neighborhood of Amel.
Thirty-one corpses were found scattered about the capital, where sectarian
murders have once again been on the rise.
Insurgents struck repeatedly in Diyala, the militant-dominated province that
borders Baghdad, Iran and Kurdistan. A suicide car bomber parked at a
crowded marketplace killed nine people in Balad Ruz. Insurgents set up a
fake checkpoint near Baquba, the provincial capital, and raked a bus with
gunfire, killing three. And south of Baquba, nine corpses were found
handcuffed and shot.
A vehicle packed with explosives and chemicals detonated near the gate of
the main American military installation in Diyala, Forward Operating Base
Warhorse, on the northwest outskirts of Baquba. No soldiers were injured,
the military said, but many later complained of "minor respiratory
irritations and watery eyes."
A Mahdi Army commander south of Baghdad in Diwaniyah led Iraqi police on a
lengthy chase and eluded his pursuers before fierce fighting broke out that
left at least three people dead and wounded a dozen more, the Iraqi police
said.
American-led troops arrested 10 Mahdi Army fighters during an operation in
Numaniya, west of Kut, in what an Iraqi security official described as the
latest offensive aimed at Mahdi fighters in the region. The police also
discovered two corpses bearing signs of torture in Numaniya.
American officials in Baghdad said soldiers killed four men and arrested six
more who they said were caught setting up rockets to attack the Green Zone,
the heavily fortified compound where the American leadership and Iraqi
government is headquartered. After Apache Longbow helicopters strafed the
men setting up the rockets, soldiers on the ground pursued and arrested six
of the men after they fled and sought refuge at a home in Sadr City.
At least 15 American servicemen have been killed in the first three days of
June, a pace that exceeds the fatality rate in May that saw 127 troops die
in the highest monthly tally since the Marine and Army invasion of Falluja
two-and-a-half years ago.