14 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Over Weekend ;At least 15 American servicemen have been killed in the

S

Sid9

Guest
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.

 
Z

Zigler

Guest
Thanks, fuckup Bush.

It's only life, after all.

I'm sure their families will be happy that they were not quite the

last to die for a political and military mistake of epic proportion.

 
Top Bottom