Four US Marines killed in action in Iraq

AFP ^ | 6/21/04 | AFP

[TexKat]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Four US marines were killed in Al-Anbar province, the US military revealed.

"Four US marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed on the 21st of June in the Al-Anbar province conducting security and stability operations," a spokesman said Monday.

Earlier, a witness said he saw four US soldiers shot in the western city of Ramadi Monday. He said he thought the soldiers were killed.

The Marines never reveal details about how their troops are killed.

Al-Anbar province, west of Baghdad, is a hotbed of the insurgency against the US-led occupation of Iraq.

The deaths raised to 620 the number of US troops killed in action since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the Pentagon.

[TexKat]

God bless this heros and their love ones.

Reuters Now Showing Photos of Dead US Troops

[TexKat]

Four Americans Killed in Iraq Ambush

Mon Jun 21, 7:32 AM ET

By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. service members were killed Monday in an ambush in the Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi, witnesses said. Videotape delivered to Associated Press Television News showed the four, still in uniform, lying dead near what appeared to be a walled compound.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military command.

On Sunday, attackers lying in wait for Iraqi troops detonated a roadside bomb on the dangerous road leading to Baghdad's airport Sunday, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11. American troops took the Iraqi wounded to a U.S. aid station and waited while they were treated.

An American Marine was killed in a non-combat incident Saturday in Anbar province, which includes Ramadi and Fallujah, the U.S. military said. A mortar round also injured six police and four Iraqis in a separate attack Sunday near the Iraqi central bank in Baghdad.

Elsewhere, U.S. forces clashed with insurgents in Samarra, striking back with helicopter gunships after guerrillas fired mortars into a residential neighborhood. U.S. 1st Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Neal O'Brien said at least four insurgents were killed.

An official from a U.S.-based shipping company said Monday that Iraq (news - web sites) has resumed oil exports of about 1 million barrels a day through its southern Basra terminal.

Mohammed Hadi, head of operations for Norton Lilly International's Baghdad operations, told The Associated Press by telephone from Jordan that pumping had resumed Sunday morning.

"Crude oil is being loaded onto one tanker at the rate of 42,000 barrels an hour, or about 1,008,000 barrels a day. Two other tankers are waiting for loading, and another two are in the anchorage area," Hadi said.

Key oil pipelines were damaged Tuesday and Wednesday in separate sabotage attacks, halting oil exports.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the Iraqi government may impose martial law in parts of the country to fight insurgents after it takes over power from the U.S.-led occupation on June 30.

Allawi also said he intends to resurrect aspects of Iraq's former military, enlarging the overall army while creating police and paramilitary units focused on controlling riots and fighting guerrillas.

"They are trying to destroy our country and we are not going to allow this," Allawi said Sunday.

He added that the May 2003 decision to disband the Iraqi army was a mistake.

The fledgling army being trained by the United States is coming under attack as Allawi's interim government prepares for the handover of sovereignty.

Allawi said his ministers were discussing the imposition of emergency law in parts of Iraq.

"We might impose some kind of martial law in some places if necessary in accordance with the law and in respect to the human rights and the international law," he said.

Sen. Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed concern over the idea, saying Iraqi troops were not strong enough to enforce it and that U.S. forces could be dragged into doing so.

"I'm not so crazy about this," Biden said on ABC's "This Week."

"A government should never lay down an order they can't enforce. I am positive that Allawi is not in a position to enforce such a law now, without the United States doing it," he said.

Saying he is eager to bolster Iraq's own security forces, Allawi made a plea for outside countries to send troops and donate military hardware.

"Until our forces are fully capable we will continue to need support from our friends," Allawi told reporters.

The incoming government is considering an amnesty for Iraqi guerrillas who haven't taken direct roles in killings of U.S.-led occupation forces or Iraqis, Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib told reporters, offering few details.

A security plan announced by Allawi focused on a strengthening of the Iraqi military, bolstering its role in fighting the insurgency. U.S. administrators had envisaged the military as a small force, meant solely to deal with external threats rather than violence within Iraq's borders.

The paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps — which U.S. administrators created as a force distinct from the military to battle insurgents — would be redesigned as a national guard force and placed under army control, along with border guards and other independent units.

The country will also build an army special forces capacity and an Iraqi Intervention Force for counterinsurgency operations.

The chief duties of Iraq's fledgling air force, with just two small surveillance aircraft in its inventory, will be to monitor pipelines, electrical transmission lines and borders, Allawi said.

As a last resort, Allawi said he would send Iraq's army, meant to protect the country against foreign invasion, to fight the guerrillas.

In other developments, South Korea said Monday it would stand by a decision to send 3,000 soldiers to Iraq despite a videotaped threat from the kidnappers of a South Korean, Kim Sun-il. His abductors threatened to behead him in a video posted on a Web site Sunday.

As many as 10 other foreigners are being held with Kim, including a European journalist and "third country" employees for the U.S.-based contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing Kim's employer.

Kim Chun-ho, head of South Korea's Gana General Trading, Co., told a Yonhap reporter in Baghdad by phone from Mosul that some of the captives were seen by an Iraqi go-between who had visited the kidnappers to try negotiating the South Korean's release.

[mystery-ak]

We have several freepers with Marines in that area....

[TexKat]

My heart goes out to all. Both of us can relate.

[ken5050]

Mark Levin..the "great one"..calls Biden the "stupidest amn in the US Senate"...

[TexKat]

Ping

[mystery-ak]

Yes, we can....

[TexKat]

I wonder if this was done by some that they somewhat had trust in?

This is a frame from a videotape, which was delivered to Associated Press Television News, shows the body of a dead US service member, still in uniform, after four were killed in the Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi, Iraq, Monday June 21, 2004. Residents said the Americans were killed in an ambush with Iraqi resistance fighters but no further details were available. There was no comment from the U.S. military command. (AP Photo/APTN)

This is a frame from a videotape, which was delivered to Associated Press Television News, showing the bodies of dead US service members, still in uniform, after four were killed in the Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi, Iraq, Monday June 21, 2004. Residents said the Americans were killed in an ambush with Iraqi resistance fighters but no further details were available. There was no comment from the U.S. military command. (AP Photo/APTN)

A frame grab taken from video footage shows the bodies of U.S soldiers in a building site in the town of Ramdi, west of Baghdad June 21, 2004. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in an attack by Iraqi insurgents west of Baghdad, witnesses said on Monday. It was unclear when the soldiers, found in a building site in the town of Ramadi, had been killed. The U.S. military had no immediate comment. REUTERS/REUTERS TV BEST AVAILABLE QUALITY

[MEG33]

May God comfort their loved ones and all who wait to be informed...God bless our armed forces and all who wait at home.

[Grampa Dave]

That camera man being there right after the ambush, makes him an islamofascist and the next target!

Squantos please post your picture of the Islamofascist trying to aim his RPG. One could imagine the RPG being replaced by a camera carried by a Pro Islamofascist Reuter's POS.

[TBarnett34]

Reuters makes me sick. This just tears it.

[TBarnett34]

Ping. You guys won't believe what Reuters is up to now (post #9).

[Neets]

Sure, I believe it.

The media ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS in this war.

[TexKat]

These pictures are from a video that was delivered to AP.

[Grampa Dave]

The camerman or person who took that video should be hunted down and disposed.

He/it was involved in this ambush.

[TBarnett34]

Just because something is sent to you does not obligate you to publish it.

[TBarnett34]

Of course, Reuters/AP will not release the cameraman's name, citing the need for anonymity in 'news' coverage.

[Squantos]

?? The MPEG ??

http://w3.kill-9.com/rpg-man.mpg

Ditto on this events nooooze abilities. Strange these troops didn't even have time radio for help or state they were under attack. Sounds like an individual fire team vs a squad working alone. One would think other fire teams belonging to the squad in the area would have been close enough to hear the gunfire and support / respond ? Lot's of questions. Prayers for them and their families.

Does current SOP still use traveling or bounding overwatch ?

Stay safe !

[Mo1]

The media ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS in this war.

Needs repeating