That's a pretty bad place. It's a rural area with lots of isolated farm houses, Sunni extremist sympathizers, and a history of kidnap-for-ransom activity. If some of the locals spotted a poorly defended checkpoint, they may have taken it upon themselves to 'acquire' some hostages, and would likely sell them to al-Qa'ida in Iraq or some other group.
Yeah. I'm shocked they had an isolated unit of 3 soldiers out in indian country. We have been very good about being enmasse on the other side of the wire. I hate to see this kind of thing happen.