Posted on 05/13/2007 5:18:54 AM PDT by jern
Edited on 05/13/2007 9:40:51 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Thousands of U.S. soldiers searched Sunday for three Americans who were missing after their patrol came under attack in an explosion that killed four of their comrades and an Iraqi army translator. Two bombings — one in northern Iraq and another at a market in Baghdad — killed at least 67 Iraqis.
The Islamic State in Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, said it had captured several soldiers in the attack, but offered no proof to back up its claim, posted on an Islamic Web site.
The search for the missing Americans began after insurgents attacked a patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter before dawn Saturday near Mahmoudiya.
The U.S. military said Saturday that five people were dead and three were missing.
On Sunday, U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell confirmed that the Iraqi interpreter was among the dead — and that all the missing were Americans. He said about 4,000 U.S. troops were involved in the search.
Caldwell said the bodies of the three slain soldiers and the Iraqi interpreter had been identified, but the military was still working to identify the fifth.
"Everybody is fully engaged, the commanders are intimately focused on this, every asset we have from national assets to tactical assets ... are being used ... to locate these three missing soldiers," Caldwell said.
Mahmoudiya is about 20 miles south of Baghdad in an al-Qaida-dominated area known as the "triangle of death." Two U.S. soldiers were massacred there last year after they disappeared at a checkpoint.
President Bush has been getting regular updates on the missing soldiers, Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said in Washington.
Meanwhile, a suicide truck bomber crashed into the offices of a Kurdish political party, killing at least 50 people, including the police chief, and wounding scores, officials said. It was the second suicide attack in Kurdish areas of the north in four days.
The suicide truck bombing in Makhmur, 30 miles south of Irbil, badly damaged the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Makhmur is just south of the autonomous Kurdish-controlled areas, but it has a substantial Kurdish population.
The blast also killed the police chief and damaged the mayor's office, officials said.
Ziryan Othman, the health minister of the Kurdish regional government, said at least 50 people were killed and 115 were wounded, including the city's mayor.
Cars were charred and crushed by the blast, with some flipped over. The tires of one appeared to have been incinerated. Most of the small KDP building appeared to have been destroyed, reduced to a pile of bricks. Other buildings had walls blown out.
A group of people hurriedly pulled a body from a demolished car.
Outside the hospital in Irbil, security guards closed the hospital to visitors and read a list containing the names of the wounded who had been admitted.
Hearing the names of his son and daughter, Qassim Amin, 61, a Kurd, thanked God that they had not been killed. Both are employees at the KDP party office, he said.
"Makhmur is an open, peaceful area, and al-Qaida is trying to destabilize it by causing fighting between Arabs and Kurds," Amin said.
In Baghdad, a parked car exploded near the popular Sadriyah market, killing at least 17 people and wounding 46, police said. The area has been hit by several blasts usually blamed on suspected Sunni insurgents, including a car bombing on April 18 that killed 127 people.
AP Television News footage showed a crater in the ground filled with debris, splintered wood, metal and a tire. A white truck appeared to be crumpled by the blast.
With violence on the rise, Caldwell also announced that an additional 3,000 forces have been sent to Diyala province, scene of heavy fighting.
Last week, the top U.S. commander in the north, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, said the U.S. didn't have enough troops to restore order in Diyala but more had been promised.
"There is a recognition clearly that up in Diyala there has been an uptick in the violence," Caldwell said at a news conference in Baghdad.
On Sunday, Iraqi gunmen drove into the Diyala capital of Baqouba, pulled two handcuffed men out of the trunk and shot them to death — one in view of a bustling market and the other near a movie theater, police and witnesses said.
"This is the destiny of traitors," the gunmen yelled as they shot their victims.
Three other civilians also were killed execution-style in a market in the city center, police said.
If Bush allows the military to do what is supposed to do (kill people and break things), Iraq will be a better place. Unfortuately he wants to play paddy cake with the enemy. Bush doesn’t understand the enemy. His handling of the war on terror needs imporvement.
Armchair General? ... is he an “Armchair General” or is he complaining about “Armchair Generals” is Washington DC?
Hope we can rescue them this time :-(
Congressional Democrats are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They are directly responsible for more of our soldiers being killed or wounded. The Democrats are traitors and allies of the terrorists.
Inflammatory statements like this only help al-Qaida and increase the danger to our troops.
Prayers for our men.
Baghdad – The U.S. military investigation into the ambush near Baghdad which has left five dead and three U.S. soldiers missing includes the question of why there were apparently only two vehicles in what is known to be a dangerous area, U.S. officials here say.
Four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi Army interpreter were killed in the huge explosion which left the two Humvees in flames before dawn on Saturday. Three other U.S. soldiers, possibly wounded, are missing, prompting an ongoing search by thousands of troops. U.S. Troops on operations in the area south of Baghdad normally travel in convoys of at least three Humvees for security reasons.
Some U.S. military operations were suspended on Sunday as troops were diverted to the search for the missing soldiers.
U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said about 4,000 troops on the ground and in the air were searching the area near Mahmudiya, surrounded by dense palm groves. The area is known as an al-Qaeda stronghold.
An al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State in Iraq, claims it is holding the missing soldiers but hasn’t offered proof.
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2761/Arraf_Reports_Anomaly_Factor_in_Kidnapping
AMEN
Mecca, Medina, etc..........gone.......
I like your idea. I often wondered when our troops were searching for Menchaca and Tucker, how many houses they went to where families knew where our soldiers were and wouldn’t say anything. Whether they were too scared, I don’t really care. Screw fighting fair!
I’ve been praying so hard for these soldiers, it’s like a chant in my head. My heart just dropped when I turned on the tv and heard this awful news. God bless them and their families.
Will the dims be able to happily compare just how well Al-Q treats their prisoners compared to the torturous treatment we give ours?
Four thousand US soldiers scoured insurgent territory in central Iraq on Sunday for three comrades, while al-Qaeda boasted it had captured the missing troops in a deadly pre-dawn ambush.
Backed by jets and helicopters, the US force threw up checkpoints among palm groves and farmsteads in rural areas south of the Iraqi capital, one day after the attack killed four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter.
Meanwhile, insurgent bombers carried out two more deadly assaults, killing at least 50 people in a suicide attack on administrative offices in a northern town and 10 more as they spread carnage in a crowded Baghdad market.
“In the United States military we have a thing called the soldier’s creed, and it says ‘I will never leave a fallen comrade’,” US spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad. “We believe in this deeply and therefore will make every effort available to find the three missing soldiers.”
A coalition of militant groups led by al-Qaeda in Iraq posted a statement on the internet claiming the attack on the soldiers.
The self-proclaimed Islamic State in Iraq said its men clashed “with a crusader patrol in the Mahmudiyah area in the south of Baghdad province, leading to the killing and capture of a number of them”.
The eight-strong patrol was attacked on Saturday, 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Mahmudiyah, a restive town just south of the capital, leaving behind five bodies in a state that initially made them difficult to identify.
Caldwell said all but one of the dead had been identified, and the Iraqi translator was among those killed, leaving three US soldiers still missing in an area known for its insurgent kidnap gangs.
Moad al-Amiri, the mayor of Mahmudiyah, told AFP a large force of US ground troops backed by helicopters and low-flying jets had descended on Shwaisha, 20 km west of his town.
“They’ve surrounded all this area and they’ve captured 43 suspects and there’s still an operation going on,” he said. “The Iraqi army is not taking part in the operation, just the Americans.”
Amiri - citing his police chief - said a second raid was also under way in Haswa, south of Mahmudiyah, again involving US troops and helicopters. “There were several arrests there too,” he added.
US military spokesmen could not confirm this, but Caldwell said the military would mobilise “every asset” to find the missing soldiers, whose duty status is listed as “whereabouts unknown”.
Mahmudiyah lies in an area of farmland and orchards known as a Sunni insurgent stronghold. After the US-led invasion of March 2003 the region was nicknamed the Triangle of Death.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-hunts-for-missing-soldiers/2007/05/14/1178995025672.html
Worked well with the Brit sailors, so I guess they will try it again....appeasement only encourages similar conduct....
We are with them each step of the way. Hopefully the politicians will stay quiet this week and not add to the “Tuff Times for All”. I will watch your posts for further info. Thanks for keeping us informed.
I agree with you in prayer. We ask dear God for the safe return of our soldiers if they are still alive. And, Lord, please protect all our soldiers, give them supernatural protection, and give our leaders wisdom and knowledge.
Me too. I keep checking back on this thread to see if there is any more news about this. My heart sank when I read about it yesterday.
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