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6 Soldiers killed by HBIED were setup by Shopkeeper
Iraqi House Was Rigged to Kill American Soldiers

SINSIL, Iraq — The courtyard was a scene of devastation, strewn with medieval mud brick and modern cinder block, shattered alike by the explosion that killed six American soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter.

Sinsil lies in the Diyala River valley north of Baghdad.
From the alleyway outside a day later, there was little sign that this was the house where the bomb exploded Wednesday, during an offensive to clear Sunni insurgents from the northern Diyala River valley, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The same building complex had been cleared of explosives two weeks earlier, commanders say. But the ill-fated unit was apparently lured back to it by a villager who did not tell them that insurgents had sneaked back in later and rigged the house to explode.

A soldier who was there, Sgt. Joseph Weeren, described in a telephone interview on Sunday how, after he was pulled from the wreckage, he and his comrades pulled four badly wounded survivors, men “screaming in pain,” from the rubble using only their bare hands and vehicle jacks.

“It was scary, because how do you move 1,000 pounds of concrete?” said Sergeant Weeren, 27, a sniper team leader from Winchester, Mass. “At that time that’s all I was thinking.”

“It was difficult because your buddy is screaming out in pain about his legs and to get him out, but we all pitched in and focused, and we jacked up that concrete,” he said from an American military base in Diyala where he was recovering from a severe concussion that he suffered in the initial explosion.

He said he believed that the explosion had been set off by a trigger wire hidden beneath a rug, which one of the soldiers stepped on.

“We saved who we could, and who we couldn’t save they didn’t feel a thing because concrete either fell on them or the bomb killed them,” he said.

Sergeant Weeren was praised by commanders for his presence of mind because after the explosion, ignoring his concussion and blurred vision, he headed straight back into the village, alone, to arrest the shopkeeper who had directed them to the compound.

“I never felt like that in my life before,” he said, explaining why he went after the shopkeeper. “I can’t really describe it,” adding: “I didn’t have any body armor on. I didn’t have a helmet. I was just so angry I went back after this guy, and I grabbed him.”

The American military identified the six dead soldiers as Specialist Todd E. Davis, 22, of Raymore, Mo.; Staff Sgt. Jonathan K. Dozier, 30, of Rutherford, Tenn.; Staff Sgt. Sean M. Gaul, 29, of Reno, Nev.; Sgt. Zachary W. McBride, 20, of Bend, Ore.; First Sgt. Matthew I. Pionk, 30, of Superior, Wis., and Sgt. Christopher A. Sanders, 22, of Roswell, N.M.

All were assigned to the Third Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment, based in Vilseck, Germany, which is attached for the Diyala operation to the Second Infantry Division.

House bombs are a common threat in Diyala, where American troops have found five since the start of last week’s operation against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni insurgent group that American officials say is foreign-led.

Capt. David Gohlich, the company commander, said the house had been used as an insurgent base for the last five or six months after it was commandeered from a wealthy Shiite family, which was forced out.

Speaking at the scene the day after the blast, Captain Gohlich said that the compound was cleared of bomb-making equipment by a different coalition force about two weeks before his platoon went in, but that the insurgents seem to have returned two or three days later and planted more explosives.

Sergeant Weeren said on Sunday that he and his colleagues did not know the background of the house before they went in. Asked if they could have done anything differently, he said: “I think about that. I don’t know.”

“It was an open compound,” he continued. “We are the most experienced platoon. We made the call to go in. I can’t go back on anything we have done.”

Although he was farther south when the bomb exploded, Captain Gohlich, 29, from New Jersey, went straight to the scene.

“As a commander it’s pretty much the worst thing that could happen,” he said. “But there are a lot of other guys that are counting on you at that moment to do the right thing and keep them safe, so you do your best to stay disconnected, take care of everyone else and catch those who are responsible.”

His squadron commander, Lt. Col. Rod Coffey, said he believed that the shopkeeper, who is now in custody, was involved. “I think he was complicit because what the locals were saying was that” the insurgents “used to stop by his store,” he said.

He praised his men for their “enormous character,” saying their performance had been “stellar.” “That platoon and company did everything right,” he said. “They were extraordinarily brave.”


Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2008-01-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=219448