Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraqi City of Mosul [Throats Cut]

Reuters ^ | Sun November 23, 2003 05:18 AM ET | Reuters Staff

[archy]

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraqi City of Mosul

Sun November 23, 2003 05:18 AM ET

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Attackers slit the throats of two U.S. soldiers while their vehicle was stopped in traffic on Sunday in the center of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, witnesses said. A spokesman for the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, based in Mosul, confirmed two soldiers had been killed in central Mosul but had no further details.

U.S. soldiers surrounded the vehicle, a white four-wheel-drive car, and interrogated Iraqis in the area, the witnesses said.

The attack brought to 184 the number of U.S. soldiers who have been killed in action since Washington declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1.

[archy]

Same way it happened in Somalia.

Or in Bosnia to the Christian Serbs.

And as in Afghanistan to Russian grunts taken POW.

-archy-/-

[huck von finn]

Oh no, please God, not another one.

[MEG33]

5 killed,7injured,Baghram Afghanistan.

[Vision]

They gave everything for us.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Justice comes in many different forms ;]

[archy]

Man it's about time to nuke that entire god-forsaken country. That'll be the only way to get rid of these murderers once and for all!

Not necessarily. I can think of a half-dozen steps that could better gain the attention of both those committing such attacks and those supporting them. Retaliatory actions have to be far too draconian for the tastes of most Americans, and the effect on those who have to carry out such projects is not pretty either.

But the point is that by ruling out the possibility that we might nuke such offenses to our operational activities, or turn offending communities into pig farms from which we could povide canned meals for relief supplies for the srarving peoples in the rest of the world, we've let them know that we are not as serious at prosecuting the remainder of this war as our enemies are, thus giving them the advantage.

Meanwhile, they see the prosecution of an American colonel for failing to play the game by the established rules that have been killing Americans, and they celebrate.

-archy-/-

[archy]

Same way it happened in Somalia.

Differing methodologies and operational techniques, but it's clear that a similar end is the hoped-for result. And it's very possible that some common direction and strategy against us is involved.

-archy-/-

[Kaslin]

FOX News reports they were pummeled with congrete blocks

Two American Soldiers Killed in Mosul

Sunday, November 23, 2003

MOSUL, Iraq  — Iraqi teenagers pulled the bloody bodies of two American soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans. Another soldier was killed by a bomb and a U.S.-allied police chief was assassinated.

The U.S.-led coalition also said it grounded commercial flights after the military confirmed that a missile struck a DHL cargo plane that landed Saturday at Baghdad International Airport (search) with its wing aflame.

Nevertheless, American officers insisted they were making progress in bringing stability to Iraq, and the U.S.-appointed Governing Council (search) named an ambassador to Washington -- an Iraqi-American woman who spent the last decade lobbying U.S. lawmakers to promote democracy in her homeland.

Witnesses to the Mosul (search) attack said gunmen shot two soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division (search) said the soldiers were driving to another garrison.

About a dozen swarming teenagers pulled the soldiers' bodies out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.

"They lifted a block and hit them with it on the face," Younis Mahmoud, 19, said.

Another teenager, Bahaa Jassim, said some looted the vehicle of weapons, CDs and a backpack.

"They remained there for over an hour without the Americans knowing anything about it," he said. "I ... went and told other troops."

Television video showed the soldiers' bodies splayed on the ground as U.S. troops secured the area. One victim's foot appeared to have been severed.

The frenzy recalled the October 1993 scene in Somalia, when locals dragged the bodies of Marines killed in fighting with warlords through the streets.

In Baqouba, just north of Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a 4th Infantry Division convoy passed, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said.

In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt confirmed the Mosul deaths but refused to provide details.

"We're not going to get ghoulish about it," he said.

The savagery of the attack was unusual for Mosul, once touted as a success story in sharp contrast to the anti-American violence seen in Sunni Muslim areas north and west of Baghdad.

In recent weeks, however, attacks against U.S. troops have increased in Mosul, raising concerns the insurgency is spreading.

Simultaneously, attacks have accelerated against Iraqis considered to be supporting Americans -- such as policemen and politicians working for the interim Iraqi administration.

On Sunday, gunmen killed the Iraqi police chief of Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, and his bodyguard and driver, American and Iraqi officials said. No further details were released.

The assassination occurred one day after homicide bombers struck two police stations northeast of Baghdad within 30 minutes, killing at least 14 people. Gunmen on Saturday also killed an Iraqi police colonel protecting oil installations in Mosul.

Elsewhere, Iraqi police said six U.S. Apache helicopter gunships blasted marshland after insurgents fired four rocket-propelled grenades at the American military garrison at the city's northern end. One Iraqi passer-by was killed in the air attack, police said.

In Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded at an oil compound, injuring three American civilian contractors from the U.S. firm Kellogg Brown & Root. The three suffered facial cuts from flying glass, U.S. Lt. Col. Matt Croke said.

KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, also has a significant presence at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, which was rocketed by insurgents Friday, wounding one civilian.

"We all know that Americans are being threatened," Croke said.

Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that witnesses saw two surface-to-air missiles fired Saturday at a cargo plane operated by the Belgium-based package service DHL as it left for Bahrain.

The plane was the first civilian airliner hit by insurgents, who have shot down several military helicopters with shoulder-fired rockets.

DHL and Royal Jordanian, the only commercial passenger airline flying into Baghdad, immediately suspended flights on orders of the coalition authority.

Despite the ongoing violence, U.S. officials insisted the occupation was going well.

"If you look at the accomplishments of the coalition since March of this year, it has been enormous," Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Tikrit.

Pace is touring Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said veteran Washington lobbyist Rend Rahim Francke was appointed Iraq's ambassador to the United States. Francke, an Iraq native who has spent most of her life abroad, led the Iraq Foundation, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, and has helped plan Iraq's transition from Saddam Hussein's rule.

The appointment will renew the diplomatic ties between Washington and Baghdad severed in 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait.

[archy]

was and am stil in favor of this action in Iraq. The one thing that really bothered me about this operation is the fact that Iran, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are left intact. I wish we could have hit them all at the same time and rolled through the entire middle east to put and end to this treachery once and for all.

Leave Iran to the Russians I think; a tip of our hat to them for eliminating many of our common enemies in Chechnya, and as an apology for our having equipped many of those now hoping to kill a few Americans when it was Russians who then were their targets in Afghanistan.

As for Saudi Arabia, partition it, much as Germany was partitioned following WWII, with various forces attending to see who can operate the most peaceful satrapy there. And if the naughtiness continues, let Mecca be administered by the Israelis.

-archy-/-

[archy]

They gave everything for us.

I heard you before, back in #10. That's not quite yet certain, and it appears that in part it was more precise to observe that everything of their future was stolen by them by the Goo-goos. And turn about is fair play.

But yes; everything.

-archy-/-

[Indie]

This is for you :)

In all seriousness, let us all (as I KNOW we on FR will!!) pray for our President, our country, and the soldiers and families who are sacrificing to stop this evil from spreading throughout the globe and eventually back at us..again. There deaths are NOT..I repeat NOT..in vain!! UNLESS we cut and run. We can not quit! Please support the one president we've had in years with GUTS!!

[in the Arena]

BTTT...

[theFIRMbss]

> The one thing that really bothered me about this operation is the fact that Iran, Syria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia are left intact.

Certainly Arabs
fight among themselves, but they
stand together, too.

Trying to fight them
country by country might be
like someone saying

they will only fight
Iowa or Illinois,
not the whole US...

[ohioWfan]

I stand corrected. It was 70% less ATTACKS on troops since Nov. 12.

And if you disagree with that statistic, you can check it out HERE , and argue with Brig. Gen. Dempsey.

[TexKat]

Three U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

MOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi teenagers dragged two bloodied U.S. soldiers from a wrecked vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks Sunday, witnesses said, describing the killings as a burst of savagery in a city once safe for Americans.

Another soldier was killed by a bomb and a U.S.-allied police chief was assassinated.

The U.S.-led coalition also said it grounded commercial flights after the military confirmed that a missile struck a DHL cargo plane that landed Saturday at Baghdad International Airport with its wing aflame.

Nevertheless, American officers insisted they were making progress in bringing stability to Iraq (news - web sites), and the U.S.-appointed Governing Council named an ambassador to Washington — an Iraqi-American woman who spent the past decade lobbying U.S. lawmakers to promote democracy in her homeland.

Witnesses to the Mosul attack said gunmen shot two soldiers driving through the city center, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. The 101st Airborne Division said the soldiers were driving to another garrison.

About a dozen swarming teenagers dragged the soldiers out of the wreckage and beat them with concrete blocks, the witnesses said.

"They lifted a block and hit them with it on the face," said Younis Mahmoud, 19.

It was unknown whether the soldiers were alive or dead when pulled from the wreckage.

Initial reports said the soldiers' throats were cut. But another witness, teenager Bahaa Jassim, said the wounds appeared to have come from bullets.

"One of the soldiers was shot under the chin and the bullet came out of his head. I saw the hole in his helmet. The other was shot in the throat," Jassim said.

Some people looted the vehicle of weapons, CDs and a backpack, Jassim said.

"They remained there for over an hour without the Americans knowing anything about it," he said. "I ... went and told other troops."

Television footage showed the soldiers' bodies splayed on the ground as U.S. troops secured the area. One victim's foot appeared to have been severed.

The frenzy recalled the October 1993 scene in Somalia, when locals dragged the bodies of Marines killed in fighting with warlords through the streets.

In Baqouba, just north of Baghdad, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as a 4th Infantry Division convoy passed, killing one soldier and wounding two others, the military said.

In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt confirmed the Mosul deaths but refused to provide details.

"We're not going to get ghoulish about it," he said.

The savagery of the attack was unusual for Mosul, once touted as a success story in sharp contrast to the anti-American violence seen in Sunni Muslim areas north and west of Baghdad.

In recent weeks, however, attacks against U.S. troops have increased in Mosul, raising concerns the insurgency is spreading.

Simultaneously, attacks have accelerated against Iraqis considered to be supporting Americans — such as policemen and politicians working for the interim Iraqi administration.

On Sunday, gunmen killed the Iraqi police chief of Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, and his bodyguard and driver, American and Iraqi officials said. No further details were released.

The assassination occurred one day after suicide bombers struck two police stations northeast of Baghdad within 30 minutes, killing at least 14 people. Gunmen on Saturday also killed an Iraqi police colonel protecting oil installations in Mosul.

Elsewhere, Iraqi police said six U.S. Apache helicopter gunships blasted marshland after insurgents fired four rocket-propelled grenades at the American military garrison at the city's northern end. One Iraqi passer-by was killed in the air attack, police said.

In Kirkuk, 150 miles north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded at an oil compound, injuring three American civilian contractors from the U.S. firm Kellogg Brown & Root. The three suffered facial cuts from flying glass, U.S. Lt. Col. Matt Croke said.

KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, also has a significant presence at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, which was rocketed by insurgents Friday, wounding one civilian.

"We all know that Americans are being threatened," Croke said.

Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that witnesses saw two surface-to-air missiles fired Saturday at a cargo plane operated by the Belgium-based package service DHL as it left for Bahrain.

The plane was the first civilian airliner hit by insurgents, who have shot down several military helicopters with shoulder-fired rockets.

DHL and Royal Jordanian, the only commercial passenger airline flying into Baghdad, immediately suspended flights on orders of the coalition authority.

Despite the ongoing violence, U.S. officials insisted the occupation was going well.

"If you look at the accomplishments of the coalition since March of this year, it has been enormous," Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Tikrit.

Pace is touring Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also Sunday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said veteran Washington lobbyist Rend Rahim Francke was appointed Iraq's ambassador to the United States. Francke, an Iraq native who has spent most of her life abroad, led the Iraq Foundation, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, and has helped plan Iraq's transition from Saddam Hussein's rule.

The appointment will renew the diplomatic ties between Washington and Baghdad severed in 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait.

<{p>In this image taken from video, the body of a US soldier lies on the ground in Mosul, Iraq Sunday, Nov. 23, 2003. According to witnesses, gunmen shot two American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division as they drove through the city center to another U.S. garrison, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall. Then, teenagers dragged their bodies from the vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks. (AP Photo/APTN)

In this image taken from video, US soldiers, center background, inspect the body of a fellow soldier in Mosul, Iraq Sunday, Nov. 23, 2003 after gunmen shot two American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division as they drove through the city center to another U.S. garrison, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall according to witnesses. Then, teenagers dragged their bodies from the vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks. (AP Photo/APTN)

In this image taken from video, the body of a US soldier lies next to his vehicle in Mosul, Iraq Sunday, Nov. 23, 2003 after gunmen shot the two Americans from the 101st Airborne Division as they drove through the city center to another U.S. garrison, sending their vehicle crashing into a wall according to witnesses. Then, teenagers dragged the bloody bodies of two American soldiers from their vehicle and pummeled them with concrete blocks. (AP Photo/APTN)

U.S. soldiers secure the area during an investigation after two U.S. soldiers were killed in the Iraqi town of Mosul, November 23, 2003. Attackers killed two U.S. soldiers as their car stood in traffic in the city of Mosul, and a roadside bomb killed another soldier north of Baghdad. (Reuters)

British soldiers patrol following a blast in Basra. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said British troops in Iraq had arrested an Australian man suspected of being a Saddam Hussein loyalist(AFP/File/Hani Al-Obeidi)

British troops in Iraq arrest Australian man suspected of ties to Saddam

Sun Nov 23, 3:13 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said an Australian man, suspected of being a Saddam Hussein loyalist, had been arrested by British troops in Iraq.

Downer said the 45-year-old man, who was working for an international company, was detained Friday after British troops raided a house in the sourthern port city of Umm Qasar believed to contain people loyal to the former Iraqi leader.

The Australian representative office in Baghdad was due to make contact Sunday with the man from the southern Australian town of Adelaide.

"His case will be reviewed by the British on Tuesday with a view to working out what they are going to do with him and what association he had with the Saddam Hussein loyalists," Downer told reporters.

"We just frankly don't know enough about what he could have been doing with these people at that time."

Several others in the house were also detained.

Downer said the man's name would not be released until the British conducted their review.

He said he did not know if or for what the man would be charged.

"It's conceivable he could be released on Tuesday. It's conceivable they could decide to charge him under the Geneva conventions as a combatant in a war if he was seen to be participating with Saddam Hussein elements attacking coalition forces," Downer said.

"There may be offences under existing Iraqi law as well that he could be charged with."

Downer said the government was surprised when informed of the arrest.

"It was quite a surprise to hear an Australian was found with a group of people who, at least the British believe, are Saddam Hussein loyalists," he said.

"We just, frankly, don't know enough about what he could have been doing with those people in that house at that time."

Iraqis loyal to the former regime are believed responsible for a wave of car bombings, assassinations and rocket attacks on coalition forces inside Iraq.

Downer said Friday's raid was a significant step towards flushing out the loyalists.

[TexKat]

I stand corrected. It was 70% less ATTACKS on troops since Nov. 12.

And if you disagree with that statistic, you can check it out HERE , and argue with Brig. Gen. Dempsey.

It could be that there are 70% less attacks since Nov. 12, but there has been an increase of U.S. troops and others deaths and casulties since Nov. 1.

[PhilDragoo]

Got schmucks?

SCHMUCK-B-GONE!

[little jeremiah]

I am sure that not all women in the military exhibit normal feminine behavior. Some women are tough. But by nature's arrangement ment and women are different. And women don't belong mixed with men in dangerous front line situations or in combat. Not even all men belong there.

And it's not just the female physique with the less than male upper body strength. Even a small man has physical strength that most women do not have. But men and women have different mental and emotional strengths and weaknesses.

May God bless your son.

[ohioWfan]

Has there been an increase in the death of U.S. troops since November 12th (without including 'others')? That is the date Operation Iron Hammer began.

Also, can you give statistics, and a link to support that claim?

[DragonflyX]

This is not as difficult as it sounds. I drove a humvee in the middle of literally hundreds of Haitian's milling around and through the streets of Port au Prince. Both I and my fellow soldiers had no pistols, only M-16's which are very hard to bring to bear and shoot one handed while creeping along at 1 mph waiting for people to get out of the way. We were hyper-vigilent but at any time 10 guys with rocks could have swarmed us and had a really good chance of killing us. Even If we got away we would have killed dozens of innocents driving over them and firing into the crowd.