Posted on 01/22/2004 1:50:36 PM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
MOSUL, Iraq - Three Stryker brigade soldiers were injured when insurgents detonated a roadside bomb as their convoy rolled down a highway Wednesday morning.
One soldier was hit in the abdomen by shrapnel and was reported in satisfactory condition after surgery at an Army field hospital. His wounds were not considered life-threatening, but he will require further surgery after he's flown home to the United States, brigade officials said.
The other two suffered minor injuries and were returned to duty after treatment. The soldiers are from B Battery of the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment.
The attack was the first in Mosul to injure Stryker brigade soldiers since their move north from the Samarra area earlier this month.
Another soldier suffered superficial cuts Friday when his truck was hit by a roadside bomb on the way to Tall Afar, west of Mosul. The officer in the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment was cut on the face by flying gravel but was otherwise unharmed.
Wednesday's attack occurred just after 8 a.m. as a five-vehicle convoy drove along a major east-west thoroughfare on the west side of the Tigris River, officials said.
The blast occurred a little more than a half-mile east of the Yarmook traffic circle, a major intersection, on a stretch of highway that runs between two cemeteries.
Ordnance experts believe the bomb was fashioned with a pair of 155 mm artillery rounds hidden in an old vegetable container and detonated by remote control, said Maj. Yvette Hopkins, the brigade intelligence officer.
The blast could be heard - and felt - three or so miles away at the brigade headquarters at the Mosul presidential palace compound.
Brigade commander Col. Mike Rounds said the explosion blew the rear axle off a Humvee with extra armor protection and damaged another Humvee, a standard gun truck.
The vehicles had to be hauled away from the scene, Rounds said. He added he hadn't learned yet whether either could be repaired and returned to service.
Two of the wounded were riding in the vehicle with extra armor.
Had it not been for the vehicle's additional armor, the soldiers' injuries might have been far worse, said the brigade surgeon, Maj. John Glorioso.
The up-armored Humvees come with bullet-proof glass and additional armor installed at various points around the vehicle.
One of the soldiers was hit between his nose and his eye by a large splinter of wood, narrowly missing his eyeball, the surgeon said.
The other was hit by shrapnel in the back of his neck and buttocks. The metal in his neck was removed, but as for the other, Glorioso said, "there's not much you can do about that. It's deep muscle tissue. He'll just have to be careful around metal detectors."
The injured soldiers were riding with troops from the 101st Airborne Division, who have been showing the Stryker soldiers around as they prepare to take over for the 101st in Mosul and the rest of northern Iraq.
The blast occurred about 8:07 a.m. In just over an hour all three wounded had been taken by ground ambulance to a nearby 101st base and then flown by helicopter to the hospital at Mosul Airfield, officials said.
Rounds directed his staff to review the incident to consider how the response might have been better or how it might have been avoided in the first place.
"You don't want these things to happen, but you want to learn from them," the commander said.
Combat engineers in Mosul conduct daily sweeps of areas where roadside bombs are likely to be planted, as they do all over Iraq where U.S. forces are operating.
The bombs - "improvised explosive devices," or IEDs - remain one of the most persistent threats to coalition forces.
One other brigade soldier suffered a broken foot and ankle in an IED blast that set fire to a Stryker in Samarra on Dec. 13. The fire destroyed the vehicle. Another Stryker was hit by an IED a week later, also in Samarra, but was returned to service after repairs to the left front wheel. No soldiers were injured.
The 5,000-strong brigade from Fort Lewis is best known for taking more than 300 of the medium-weight, eight-wheeled Strykers into combat for the first time. But it also has hundreds of other vehicles with less protection and firepower, including Humvees and trucks.
Rounds said he is trying to convince higher commanders to give the brigade more of the up-armored Humvees, particularly for the 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment. The battalion will mostly be working like an infantry unit, protecting the brigade's operating bases and convoy routes.
Mosul is considered to be much more stable than other parts of Iraq but still sees attacks on coalition forces.
On Monday, insurgents fired at least one rocket-propelled grenade at the palace camp. On Tuesday, three mortar rounds landed near the front gate.
There were no injuries in either attack, which occurred just before sunrise.
News Tribune staff writer Michael Gilbert is embedded with the Stryker brigade in Iraq. Reach him at mjgilbert41@yahoo.com.
For regular reports on the brigade, sign up for an e-mail newsletter at www.tribnet.com/ registration.
(Published 12:01AM, January 22nd, 2004)
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