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| Iraq |
| U.S. Army kills 11 Iraqi ambushers |
| 2003-07-04 |
| Balad, Iraq — U.S. troops killed 11 Iraqis who ambushed a convoy on a highway north of Baghdad Friday, hours after mortar rounds slammed into a U.S. base in the same area, wounding 18 soldiers, the military said. Another U.S. soldier was shot and killed while guarding the Baghdad museum, the U.S. military said Friday. Spokesmen said 11 men attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near Balad, 95 kilometres north of the capital. Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division fired back, killing all the attackers; no Americans were injured. Sounds like we've decided to get tough - all were killed? Whatsamatta? No civilians to hide behind? Late Thursday, blasts from four mortar rounds rocked a huge U.S. base near Balad, injuring 18 soldiers, said Major Edward Bryja of the Army's 3rd Corps Support Command. Two soldiers were seriously injured, with one undergoing surgery in a hospital located on the base and another evacuated for treatment, Major Bryja said. Others suffered cuts and small punctures from shrapnel, and nine soldiers quickly went back to duty, army officials said. Soldiers said flares and tracer bullets sliced across the night sky after the blasts. "This is the first time the base was attacked — and the first time we've seen mortars," said Sergeant Grant Calease, who said he and other soldiers would nonetheless carry on with a July 4 barbecue. Unemployed Baathist army thugs kept their mortar hmmm? The wounded soldiers belonged to Task Force Iron Horse, a 33,000-member unit that has been conducting raids in mainly Sunni Muslim central Iraq — the latest sweep aimed at putting down insurgents who have been staging daily attacks on U.S. troops. On Friday, attackers detonated an explosive on a highway in Baghdad's western outskirts, injuring three passengers in a civilian car and two U.S. soldiers travelling in a Humvee convoy, an Associated Press photographer on the scene said. On Thursday evening, a sniper shot and killed a U.S. soldier manning the gunner's hatch of a Bradley fighting vehicle outside the national museum. His name was not immediately available. Hours before the attack, the national museum displayed several artifacts that were looted after the fall of Baghdad and later recovered. The museum also showed several items from the Treasures of Nimrud, which were found hidden in a bank vault weeks ago. Curators acknowledged that many of the museum's treasures remain unaccounted for. I'm sure that's still our fault although that "tragedy" was debunked over a month ago... |
| Posted by:Frank G |