Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Ambush

AP via WashPost ^ | 072003 | Paul Haven

[Archangelsk]

Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Ambush

By Paul Haven
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 20, 2003; 12:07 PM

BAGHDAD, Iraq –– Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were killed and one was injured in an ambush Sunday when their convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

The deaths brought to 151 the number of American soldiers killed in action since the March 20 start of the war, four more than the total killed in the 1991 Gulf war.

Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two others injured when their vehicle crashed and flipped over near Baghdad International Airport, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

[Archangelsk]

Steady on men.

[dinok]

Its time for a new division to head to Iraq and releive the 3rd Infantry. Those boys did their job, and we are jerking them around. Rumsfeld is starting to tick me off. Its not like we don't have troops to send.

This is for some of you Coolaid drinkers who have never served a day in service or had families go through the personal cost of separation. As we speak, military families as well as the men standing guard in Iraq are taking the hits. Mariages are going to fall apart, kids will go thtough life with out their father, and we are taking the risk that one of those men will snap after seeing a budy die and kill a bunch of civilians right in front of CNN or BBC cameras. When ... not if...that happens, Rumsfeld, GW or the Washington Generals will not be blamed, or have to live with that nightmare. It will be that poor guy who was at the end of his rope and his family that was waiting for a hero to come home and now have to live with the shame of disgrace.

Bring the 3rd ID home and send another division over there.

[AntiGuv]

Rumsfeld is more concerned with being right than doing right....

[fatidic]

Dittos! The Iraqis don't want, appreciate or understand modernity or rule of law. Brute force, personality cults and religious wars are what they are about. Bring our troops home and only bomb WMD sites from now on. Leave nation building for the useful idiots on the left.

[steve50]

Rumsfeld is more concerned with being right than doing right....


So far he's managed neither. His arrogance seems to have been knocked down a little the last couple weeks at least.

[Archangelsk]

only bomb WMD sites from now on

Who is going to do Battle Damage Assessment?

[Gunslingr3]

Its time for a new division to head to Iraq and releive the 3rd Infantry. Those boys did their job, and we are jerking them around. Rumsfeld is starting to tick me off. Its not like we don't have troops to send.

Which one do you want to send?

[huck von finn]

Not a good day in Iraq today, apparently. Shi'ites are gaining steam.

Shiite Muslims hurl stones as they react to U.S. Marines during a protest Sunday, July 20, 2003, in the Muslim holy city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites). Thousands of followers of a hardline Shiite Muslim cleric marched on the U.S. headquarters in Najaf, demanding American forces leave the town and shouting derision at the newly formed Iraqi Governing Council. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

U.S. Marines of the 1st Brigade, 7th Regiment, block protesters Sunday, July 20, 2003, marching on the U.S. headquarters in the Muslim holy city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites). Thousands of followers of a hardline Shiite Muslim cleric marched on the U.S. headquarters, demanding American forces leave the town and shouting derision at the newly formed Iraqi Governing Council.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

[Archangelsk]

Which one do you want to send?

A very good question. With so many units deployed throughout the world, we are becomingly very thin. The recent news that the SecDef is positioning to make Guard and Reserve units active duty should tell you how thin we are. I've even heard rumors of calling back retired personnel and moving IRR soldiers into units. (Considering the SecDef's decision to nominate Gen. Schoonmaker as Army CoS, this is not out of the realm of possibilities).

Personally, I'd probably rotate 10th Mountain to the region, but their OPTEMPO is insane right now.

[Gunslingr3]

Monday, May 12, 2003 Release 03-55

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DIVISION RETURNS TO AFGHANISTAN
Fort Drum, N.Y. -- Elements from across the 10th Mountain Division (LI) are scheduled for return duties to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The rotation of soldiers has begun and will continue throughout the summer months.

[f.Christian]

nobodies saying nato -- un !

[Archangelsk]

Ah, then I'm prescient but ignorant. :-)

[Gunslingr3]

nobodies saying nato -- un !

NATO is a defensive alliance created to defend it's members against aggression. It isn't an alliance that is designed to attack and occupy nations.

The U.N. has no troops. India and Russia have recently made it clear they would not send troops to operate under U.S. command. I don't think the Bush administration is ready or willing to turn the country over to the U.N. yet. That attitude might change if the press is reporting an American death every other day through November 2004. Those opposed to U.S. occupation of Iraq (of all stripes) surely aren't ignorant of that.

[Destro]

Send the ones in Bosnia and Kosovo!! stop the madness!

[Gunslingr3]

I'm honestly curious what we have available to send myself. I didn't know about the status of the 10th until I looked a minute ago. What do we have sitting in reserve in case North Korea gets real hot? Just fight it with the ROK troops and our airpower? I don't think the brass initially opposed this adventure because they didn't think we could beat Iraq's military, but simply because it puts us in a pinch for the forseeable future.

[AntiGuv]

How about the III Marine Expeditionary Force? They're sure not appreciated in Okinawa...

[arete]

It's time for USA to get the "coalition of the willing" to fill their own body bags

We were able to buy the "coalition of the willing" off with tax dollars to say they supported the war, but I don't know if they are dumb enough to actually send in their own troops. Poland excepted of course who committed 200 men in exchange for some new fighter jets and cash.

Richard W.

[mtbopfuyn]

But now the deeply saddened RATS can jump for joy! Those 3 soldiers gave their lives so the number of fatalities can be sung from the highest hilltop. The RATS, along with their yellow journalists, have been claiming for weeks the death toll tops that of the Gulf War but as of today they won't be lying any more. The combat death toll of the Gulf was 148 from that 1 month war where as of Saturday that number was equal to the Iraq War that has been going on for not 1 month, but 4 times that long. Tommy and Kerry can finally sleep with a smile on their faces tonight.

[Archangelsk]

Not their mission. The leadership played political football with the Marines in Afghanistan and withdrew them out at first chance when it was realized that they were too far from their support base.

[Gucho]

I hope a 100% effort is in place to improve protection and intel on these convoy routes!

[mr.pink]

With so many units deployed throughout the world, we are becomingly very thin.

The Chinese probably are having a difficult time concealing their smiles as we start to overextend ourselves militarily.

[CanadianLibertarian]

Ok what the devil is going on there? This is now an all-out guerilla campaign against our troops, and there seems to be no effective response in the works. And when will the 3rd ID and other troops who have been there since last year be relieved? More troops, more agressive responses, more common sense please.

[Destro]

So to be a good Republican means we ignore the deaths????????

[verity]

Do you have a personal interest in the 3ID?

[Gunslingr3]

How about the III Marine Expeditionary Force? They're sure not appreciated in Okinawa...

True enough, they're not appreciated there, but they sit there to counterbalance any aggressive moves by North Korea or China. Can we afford to weaken our position in that region right now? Is that what we want to show Kim? That we're pulling troops out of the area?

[AntiGuv]

OK, well how about the 1st Infantry Division? What're they doing these days?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Full AP articles available from the Las Vegas Sun.

__________________________________________________________

Today: July 20, 2003 at 10:57:45 PDT

Two More U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

By PAUL HAVEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -

Iraq's daily barrage of attacks killed two more American soldiers and an Iraqi employee of a U.N.-affiliated relief agency Sunday, while thousands of followers of a hardline Shiite Muslim cleric staged an anti-American protest in the holy city of Najaf.

The two U.S. soldiers died when rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire struck their convoy early Sunday near Tal Afar, a town west of the northern city of Mosul, said military spokesman Cpl. Todd Pruden. Another soldier was injured. All the victims were from the 101st Airborne Division.

The deaths brought to 151 the number of U.S. troops killed in action since the March 20 start of war - four more than during the 1991 Gulf War. Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two others injured when their vehicle crashed and flipped over near Baghdad International Airport, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla.

The area of the convoy attack near Tal Afar, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad, had been relatively peaceful in recent weeks, and the ambush was a worrying development for American forces trying to bring stability to Iraq.

Most recent violence has occurred in an area north and west of Baghdad called the Sunni triangle, where some support for Saddam Hussein remains. Tal Afar lies outside that region.

On Sunday, the top U.S. official in Iraq said he believes Saddam is still alive and in the country, though not orchestrating attacks on American troops.

Paul Bremer, speaking to NBC's "Meet the Press," said there was no evidence of central control in the assaults, calling them "highly professional but very small, sort of squad-level attacks, five or six people at a time attacking us."

Still, he said, getting Saddam would help the situation.

"The sooner we can either kill him or capture him, the better, because the fact that his fate is unknown certainly gives his supporters the chance to go around and try to rally support for him," said Bremer.

In another troubling sign, a two-car convoy carrying members of the International Organization for Migration were ambushed near the southern city of Hilla when a pickup truck pulled up alongside one car and opened fire.

The car collided with a bus. Personnel in a World Health Organization convoy traveling behind the IOM vehicles treated three injured and took the Iraqi driver to a hospital, where he died, said Omer Mekki, the WHO deputy director in Iraq.

Both convoys were clearly marked as U.N. vehicles.

"We're a bit shaken. Everybody is a bit shocked," said Mekki. "But when we were recruited and we came to Iraq, we knew there were risks. An incident like this is not unexpected.

Ahmed Fawzi, spokesman for the special representative of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, denounced the attack. "The United Nations is in Iraq to help the Iraqi people. We are not taking sides," he said in Baghdad.

"We have no way of knowing whether this was targeted at the United Nations. This is a dangerous situation. Only the restoration of law and order can put an end to these attacks," he said. The U.N. World Food Program was targeted in a July 6 grenade attack in Mosul, and four days later, the agency issued a release citing concern over the security situation in Iraq.

U.N. special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello left Iraq on Sunday. He is to report to the U.N. Security council on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Najaf, thousands of followers of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr set out from the Imam Ali shrine on a six-mile march to U.S. headquarters there, shouting slogans against the new, U.S.-sanctioned Iraqi Governing Council and the Americans.

"Long live al-Sadr. America and the Council are infidels," chanted the crowds. "Muqtada, go ahead. We are your soldiers of liberation."

U.S. troops prevented the demonstrators from entering the headquarters and soldiers barricaded the building with Humvees. The crowd dispersed after clerics read out an appeal by al-Sadr to go home.

Earlier, al-Sadr said in a statement read inside the shrine that he wanted coalition forces to leave Najaf and allow Iraqis to handle security for themselves. In his Friday sermon, the cleric said he was recruiting a private army but fell short of calling for armed struggle against the U.S. occupation.

A coalition official dismissed the threat, but said no private armies will be tolerated.

"The only army in Iraq will be the new Iraqi army, which is being formed," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Anyone found with an unlicensed weapon will be arrested."

The U.S.-led coalition has begun building what it hopes will eventually be a 40,000-strong military force. On the first day of recruiting Saturday, the coalition processed 5,000 applications at centers in Mosul, Baghdad and the southern city of Basra, the official said.

Al-Sadr, thought to be 30 years old, is not considered a high-ranking Shiite cleric. Most of his support is by virtue of his being the son of Imam Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a top Shiite religious leader assassinated by Saddam's agents in 1999.

In other news:

- A bomb detonated prematurely in the capital on Sunday, missing a U.S. Army convoy. The U.S. military quickly sealed off the area as Army experts searched for more explosive devices. Two more were found and defused.

-Two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at - and missed - a U.S. convoy on the outskirts of Tarimiya, 25 miles north of Baghdad.

- A large fire broke out at a warehouse of the international aid group CARE near the Baghdad railroad yard. Paint and wood were stored in the building, witnesses said.

---

EDITOR'S NOTE: AP correspondents Bassem Mroue in Najaf and Hamza Hendawi in Baghdad contributed to this report.

--

[Lijahsbubbe]

posted here

[Gunslingr3]

Looks like elements of the 1st are deployed in Kosovo and in April other elements were being deployed to Iraq already.

[dr_who_2]

Would be great if the US could turn the tables on these sorts of terrorists, though.

[dogbyte12]

The problem as I see it, is the trading of a life for a life. We know that alot of these fanatics are prepared to die. Most of these incidents have been sniper attacks, where they didn't even have to risk their lives.

There really is no good solution as I see it. Iraq is the size of California. Just say there are only 200 dedicated bad guys in the country. Trying to root out all 200 before they trade their lives for one or more of ours is going to be a bitch, especially when we don't know who each of them are, what they look like, and where they are.

Even with pictures, try rounding up 200 people that are at an undetermined location in California and see how easy that is. Dropping bombs on a military site is easy pickings. Guerilla warfare is a bitch.

[Lijahsbubbe]

Thanks for the pictures.

I will say again, how many people will keep insisting, "it's just Saddam's men, it's just the Baathists, it's just the Sunnis?

I can't stand to see our boys just stand there and do nothing. This demonstrating should not be allowed. The don't see it as democracy, they see it as weakness, and they will do more next time.

[AntiGuv]

Hmmm.. At this rate, the Pentagon will be deploying seamen for ground combat when the next hotspot flares up..

[Lijahsbubbe]

This rock throwing sure looks familiar. Do they learn this in the Muslim primer?

[Gunslingr3]

This demonstrating should not be allowed.

How do you plan to stop it? They're looking for a Boston Massacre, are you sure you want to give it to them?

[AntiGuv]

What they're truly looking for is an opening for a Beirut-style bombing with a couple hundred of ours dead in one fell swoop. If they pull that off, all hell will break loose in the stateside media....

[Gunslingr3]

but now that they have, let them put their bodies where their mouths are.

And if they can't afford it and don't want to? The Polish troops that are there are special forces, I doubt they're doing the garrison work. The world spurned us on this adventure, I think they're content to let us stew for a while longer.

[Gunslingr3]

What they're truly looking for is an opening for a Beirut-style bombing with a couple hundred of ours dead in one fell swoop. If they pull that off, all hell will break loose in the stateside media....

It certainly wouldn't be under the fold a week later like Khobar Towers. In my own opinion OBL's long term strategy continues to play out. Khobar Towers, the embassy bombings, the U.S.S. Cole were all insufficient. Clinton refused to kick the tarbaby no matter how loudly OBL begged him to. The WTC attack worked. American involvement in the Middle East is now front and center for Americans. And now that they have Americans in easy reach they can keep bleeding us until Americans get fed up with the loss and demand our politicians get us out of the mess. What has 50 years of American involvement gained us except emnity and thousands of dead Americans?

[Lijahsbubbe]

I don't know about stopping it, but how did it start? It didn't start out with thousands. If we have to be police, shouldn't our men be allowed to do what police do? Tell them to break it up and move along before it gets that huge.
Throw 'em in jail if they don't listen.

[Gunslingr3]

Adventure is an inappropriate term for the blood we have shed (ours & theirs).

As a complete aside, I pride myself on being being as precise as possible in my vocabularly. I did not intend 'adventure' as a slight to the men and women involved.

ad·ven·ture n.

1 a) An undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.

b) An undertaking of a questionable nature, especially one involving intervention in another state's affairs.

[huck von finn]

I can't stand to see our boys just stand there and do nothing. This demonstrating should not be allowed. The don't see it as democracy, they see it as weakness, and they will do more next time.

As you look at the second photograph I posted, do you really think the American soldiers can "disallow" it? I don't mean to mock you. I only mean to point out the seriousness of the situation. And I can't stand to see it either.

[Husker24]

I will say again, how many people will keep insisting, "it's just Saddam's men, it's just the Baathists, it's just the Sunnis?

Most likely its an combination of Iranian agents sent to stirr up trouble in the Sheitte areas and a mixture of Saudis,Jordanians,and Syrians that flood in to take the "Jihad" to the Americans. These terrorist are probably working with a small group of hardline ex-Saddam officials that provide connections for them to get weapons and money. I think it is a "melting pot" of sh!t. You know these people are getting defacto suport from the Syrian and Iranian government as well as certain segments of the Saudi government.

[Lijahsbubbe]

That second photo is so haunting. I don't know what their orders are, but I do think they should be able to do something.

I'm not trying to be sarcastic here either but, how do you think this got started? Did they all come out of their houses at one time? Did they call each other on their cell phones and plan it? Did they march in from another town?

There had to be a starting point, and as I said, if our soldiers have to be the police instead of soldiers, they should be allowed to act as police and put an end to these demonstrations.

[paul51]

They're looking for a Boston Massacre, are you sure you want to give it to them

I'm not a diplomate nor a military startegist and my next comments will make that clear. In answer to your question, why not. War is about killing the enemy. Looks to me like the war is not over. I would rather, as you put it, a Boston Massacre, than letting the picking off our troops continue. Futher, I would also be supportive in dragging out into the streets the mullahs who are instigating the demonstrations and inciting the violence, and shooting them. War is a dirty business and we can't move on to step 2 until we finish step 1.

[paul51]

Did you get lost?