Posted on 04/18/2004 11:49:10 AM PDT by yonif
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Five U.S. Marines died in an ambush on the Syrian border, triggering a battle with hundreds of guerrillas and pushing the number Americans killed in combat this month to 99.
Reports of the battle -- in an area that had seen little fighting previously -- came as Spain's prime minister ordered Spanish troops withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had run for office on a promise to withdraw the forces, but the timing of the announcement was unexpected.
At least 25 Iraqis were killed in the fighting that followed Saturday's ambush in Husaybah, 240 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The city's police chief was among the dead, a hospital official said.
Across Iraq, Saturday was one of the bloodiest days for U.S. troops since the latest uprising began April 4. Five U.S. troops were killed in guerrilla attacks elsewhere in the country and a sixth died in a tank rollover.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces struggled to maintain control of Iraq's highways. The military announced new closures around Baghdad that severed long stretches of roads into the capital from the north, south and west -- a reflection of the damage from a two-week guerrilla onslaught on U.S. supply lines.
Insurgent attacks and kidnappers' roadblocks have forced the military to curtail supply convoys and are part of the reason commanders have boosted ground forces by more than 20,000 U.S. troops. The military has already been tied down since April 1 on fronts in southern and central Iraq in the worst violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Officials have said the violence threatens to hamstring U.S. reconstruction effort and drive up prices of civilian goods, dealing a blow to a delicate economic recovery in Iraq.
More than 1,500 foreign engineers and contractors have fled Iraq for fear of being abducted or killed, Iraqi Housing Minister Bayan Baqer said today.
The military in Baghdad today announced the death of five U.S. troops the day before in attacks across Iraq.
Three soldiers were killed when their 1st Armored Division convoy was ambushed near the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniyah. Another died when a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy in Baghdad, and a Marine was killed in action in western Iraq, separate from the fighting by the Syrian border.
Along with the fighting at the border, the deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops in violence killed since April 1. With the death of a soldier in a tank rollover in Baghdad on Saturday, at least 697 U.S. servicemembers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week he had not anticipated such a high death toll. Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today there was no way to predict casualties.
"This is combat, this is war. This is much more art than it is science. There is no way to make a proper calculation," he said in an interview with CNN.
Rockets aimed at a military camp in western Baghdad hit a nearby civilian area, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding four others, as well as wounding two U.S. civilian contractors and one soldier.
The fighting in Husaybah began when insurgents ambushed Marines on Saturday, sparking a battle with hundreds of rebel gunmen.
Fighting continued today in three neighborhoods of the city, which was sealed off by U.S. forces.
Five Marines were killed in the fighting, said Marine spokesman Lt. Eric Knapp. He also said some Marines were wounded, but did not give a number. He reported 25-30 insurgents were killed.
At least 30 Iraqis were wounded, Hamid al-Alousi, a doctor at the hospital in the nearby city of al-Qaim, told the Arab television station Al-Arabiyah. He said some civilians were shot by Marine snipers as they stepped outside to use outdoor toilets behind their houses.
Husaybah police director Imad al-Mahlawi was one of those killed by American snipers, according to a man who identified himself as al-Mahlawi's cousin, Adel Ezzeddin, Al-Arabiya reported.
According to Marine intelligence, nearly 300 Iraqi mujahedeen fighters from the Fallujah and Ramadi areas, some 150 miles to the east, launched the offensive in an outpost near Husaybah.
They first set off a roadside bomb to lure Marines out of their base, and then fired 24 mortars as the Marines responded to the first attack, said a correspondent from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who is embedded with the military.
Myers said U.S. forces are on the border to try to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq. He complained that Syria was not doing enough to control the border.
"The Syrians need to take this situation very seriously," he said. "I want them to cut off that flow of foreign fighters."
The announcement that Spain would pull out its 1,300 soldiers came just hours after a new Socialist government was sworn in.
In an announcement from the Moncloa Palace, Zapatero said he had ordered the defense minister to "do what is necessary for the Spanish troops stationed in Iraq return home in the shortest time possible."
The Socialists swept to an election victory after March 11 train bombings killed 191 people in Madrid. Militants who claimed responsibility for the attack said it was punishment for backing the United States in the war.
Zapatero said he acted after deciding the United Nations was unprepared to take over the occupation of Iraq -- his condition for keeping Spanish troops in the country.
The military announced today it closed off the main highway from Baghdad to the Jordanian border, the scene of heavy fighting at the western entrance to Baghdad as well as near Fallujah and Ramadi further down the road.
For days, gunmen along the route have been attacking convoys and kidnapping foreigners -- including an American soldier and civilian.
The military also shut down a stretch of the main highway north to Turkey, starting at the entrance to Baghdad extending to the town of Balad 42 miles north. Also closed was a 90-mile section of the main southern highway connecting Baghdad with Basra and Kuwait.
In other developments today :
-- U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said she would not speculate on whether the United States might consider a prisoner swap with militants who have kidnapped Americans, but added, "I think you can be certain that negotiations with terrorists are not on this president's agenda." She spoke on "Fox News Sunday."
-- Two British soldiers were injured Saturday when their convoy came under fire in the southern town of Amarah, but their injuries were not life-threatening, the British defense ministry said today.
-- Attackers fired several mortar rounds overnight at Spanish bases in Diwaniya and Najaf, and at a Polish base in Karbala, but no damage or casualties were reported.
Soldiers die in wars and many others are wounded. Some have permanent disabilities. I grieve for every soldier who dies and I pray that those who are injured will recover from those wounds.
That said, there were 3000 innocent men, women and children who died in the terror attacks of 9/11, and many more in ALL of the terrorist attacks around the world. IF we don*t fight them in Iraq, the terrorists will come to America to fight us. Would you rather soldiers fight and die in Iraq, or innocent civilians die in America? Terrorism is here to stay and people are going to die from now on and there is nothing we can do to stop it.
Look at the big picture. We are at war with radical Islam. It's going to be a long war, fought on many fronts, to paraphrase Pres. Bush. No one said it would be easy.
So far we have ousted two regimes friendly to terrorism. A third, Libya, has conceded without a shot being fired. Pakistan has a major assault on terror pockets in their country. Iran has pro-West majority that is ripe to overthrow the Mullahs. They are looking across thier border to see if freedom wins in Iraq. Many terror leaders have been killed or "detained".
Look at the big picture man! Focusing on daily body counts is exactly what the Dem-libs want you to do.
You don't honestly believe that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq do you? You KNOW Saddam used them on his own people, so we KNOW he has them hidden somewhere. My guess is in Iran or Syria. Clinton said they were there and so did many other people in his administration and the military.
I know this will probably be difficult for your Liberal mind to process, but we HAVE to fight the terrorists somewhere and Iraq is the best place to do it. It was time for Saddam to go anyway. He was a brutal dictator. I would much rather the terrorists all go to Iraq to fight us than come to America, and that's exactly what they will do when/IF we pull out of Iraq.
These are NOT sad moments for our republic. We've overthrown two radical regimes that murder people and harbor terrorists. We've killed a lot of terrorists in the process, and as as far as I'm concerned, we have a LOT to be thankful for. Lybia turned over their WMD's and that's because President Bush took the war to Iraq. He didn't want to end up like Saddam. OOOOHH that doesn't hurt me one bit, and I'm sure NOT going to whine about it. In fact, I'm delighted! Further, I hope we go right on into Syria AND Iran and overthrow their governments too.
We are in a battle against evil and our lives depend on our taking out as many terrorist regimes as we can. What does scare me is that it's just beginning. It's no time to be faint hearted.
If the President did tell a lie and it saved our lives, then I'm glad he did. I'll leave the war in the hands of our military leaders and the President, and I'll cheer their successes. They have kept an attack from hitting us since 9/11. I know it's just a matter of time until we get hit again, but for this day, I'm grateful to God for one more day to spend with my loved ones. God Bless America, and God Bless President Bush!! Cowboy up, and enjoy the ride. ;-)
Your described "tin-pot" dictator had WMD. He was supposed to destroy them and prove that he did. He didn't do that. Saddam got what he deserved.
Meanwhile, terrorists from Syria, Iran and other places have moved into Iraq and are trying to prevent Iraq and its people from becoming a Constitutional Democracy. All the while, the liberals of the world continue to sabotage our efforts to fight these terrorists -- who are a danger to us -- and to defend the unalienable rights of the Iraqi people.
That's, liberals -- LIKE YOU!
I can believe in UFO's but that won't change the fact that we haven't found any WMD's in Iraq.That may be true. However, what you believe is also irrelevant. They were used at Halabja and during the Iran-Iraq War. Saddam claimed he had plenty of the stuff prior to the departure of the U.N. inspectors in 1998. Using the Reasonable Man standard, it would be reasonable to believe that Saddam both kept them and either destroyed them or hid them well. My hunch is that he hid them well, probably in Syria, for a price to be negotiated later. It is not reasonable to suppose that Saddam would become a Boy Scout overnight and destroy the totems of his own power. That's just stupid.
Had there been any WMD's, we would not have attacked Iraq to begin with. There's no reason for Bad Saddam not to use WMD's as a las resort against an invading army.
There are those who go through life and play the fool, then there are those who open their mouths and immediately remove all doubt.
Consider yourself one of the latter. Every one I talked to on the ground assumed that Saddam would probably deploy WMD. Didn't you see the early weeks of the invasion? The Marines and the 3rd Infantry Division were wearing MOPP Suits. If there was no threat, they wouldn't be wearing MOPP Suits. They expected to be hit!
Yeah, Saddam used gas to kill his own people, how touchy. And what did we do about that when it happened? Nothing, that's what. We were on his side then and Mujahedeens were Freedom Fighters.
Nice to see how much a liberal cares about his fellow man.
That we were supporting Saddam in his efforts to keep his entire front from collapsing due to Iranian manpower does not alter the fact that Saddam had WMD, does it? Your answer simply dodges the point of the poster, and thus fails to reinforce what little that passes for an argument that you possess.
Clinton said he had them... proving what? the ghost of Clinton has never left the Oval Office? I'm shocked!
Proving that two Administrations, one Democratic, the other Republican, believed that Saddam had WMD. If you believe that the Republican President was lying about this, it follows that you must believe that Clinton lied about it as well, since your Major Assumption is that any assertion that Iraq has WMD is a lie.
Next time, please don't argue with adults.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
This question in particular causes me to question your experiences in life.
What is a democratic government in Iraq going to accomplish?
If the differences between brutal dictatorship and democracy aren't readily apparent to you, few here should waste their time. Stick around, there may be hope.
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