Two U.S. Troops, Civilians Missing in Iraq -Official

Reuters ^ | 4/9/04

[saquin]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two American troops and an unknown number of civilian contractors are missing in Iraq after an attack on a fuel convoy west of Baghdad, a Defense Department official said on Friday.

"We do have the two U.S. service members unaccounted for, and an unknown number of contractors," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

No other details of those missing were immediately available.

Witnesses at the scene of the convoy attack said at least nine people were killed. Several vehicles were ablaze and overturned.

A Reuters photographer on the scene said the convoy included U.S. military vehicles and fuel tankers.

Friday marked the first anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The country was in turmoil as Sunni and Shi'ite rebels battled U.S. forces and held three Japanese and several other foreign hostages.

In the past week, at least 51 American and allied soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in the fighting.

[saquin]

S**t.

[Ingtar]

Ugh - I hope it does not get out that these are likely Haliburton employees.

[Fee]

What the hell are we doing. Our troops are suffering chronic ammo shortages, and we spend time and effort to bring fuel into the rebel areas for the civilians. Humanitarian gestures are seen as a sign of weakness and an opportunity to ambush more of our men and destroy more of our equipment (meaning bucks). Commanders on the ground better stop acting like community police officers and act like conquerors or else we provide ammunition for the Islamic and leftist American propoganda.

[JimSEA]

A Reuters photographer on the scene said the convoy included U.S. military vehicles and fuel tankers

Was this "photographer" also the spotter for the rpg attack? The more lives we lose, the more enemies we get. Very sad for any American or other coalition member.

[Graybeard58]

we spend time and effort to bring fuel into the rebel areas for the civilians.

Where does it say that?

My son drives a fuel truck in that region and all he has ever told me about is supplying our military.

[First_Salute]

Need a whole lot of helicopters for air to ground support.

For each helo running escort for the ground, it needs a wingman, and a tailman aways back.

Wingman supports lead. Tailman watches for signs of enemy ground activity, so that we bag the bad guys.

Instead of this, "the suits" who have written "the doctrine" for helicopters, have been excessively quarreling among themselves and with military commanders about "the mission" for helicopters.

They should be supporting the ground, and there should be many, many more of them.

They should be sweeping the roadway perimeters along with men in the bush.

We simply do not have enough people over there.

We need many more in the bush, who are set up to "snatch" the bad guys.

Instead of the policy of blythe dancing, just truckin' along, hopin' and prayin' that nothin' happens.

[steplock]

"We do have the two U.S. service members unaccounted for, and an unknown number of contractors," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

This scum is probably a lawyer that was placed there in the DoD by the clinton administration.

Trash needs to be thrown out and burned.

[arjay]

We pray for your son's welfare. I am sure you must be very proud of and frightened for him.

[Graybeard58]

Thank you. He's also a member of Free Republic. His screen name is: smaagee