Posted on 07/23/2003 11:35:06 PM PDT by yonif
09:22 Three U.S. soldiers killed in attack in Northern Iraq
MEG, my sentiments, exactly.
Sometimes I don't know whether to feel anger, or sorrow.
It's hard when you feel both...
but I feel mostly anger.
We're closing in on Saddam -- the reason for the stepped-up terrorist attacks.
US soldiers killed in area where Saddam sons died
MOSUL, Iraq, July 24 (Reuters) - Three U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division operating in northern Iraq were killed in a rifle and grenade attack on Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman said.
No further details were immediately available.
Soldiers from the 101st, based in Mosul, killed Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay in a raid on a house in the city on Tuesday. At least one shadowy group has vowed to avenge their deaths.
"Three 101st Airborne Division soldiers were killed in a small arms and RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) attack," the spokesman at U.S. headquarters in Baghdad said by telephone.
That brings the total of soldiers killed by the enemy to 44 since Washington declared an end to major combat on May 1.
It was the second fatal attack on the 101st since the massive raid, which was backed by rocket-firing helicopters and killed Uday and Qusay after they barricaded themselves into a house.
Saddam himself is still believed to be in hiding somewhere in Iraq. U.S. authorities plan to publish photographs of his sons' bodies in an effort to convince Iraqis there is no prospect of the former ruling family returning to power.
07/24/03 02:43 ET
My gut tells me he's in the area...
New attack kills 3 U.S. soldiers
BAGHDAD (CNN) --Three U.S. soldiers were killed in northern Iraq on Thursday morning, after they were attacked by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. military officials. The soldiers were from the 101st Airborne Division, the officials said. On Wednesday, two U.S. soldiers in Iraq were killed and nine wounded, in separate attacks, when their convoys hit explosive devices, according to the U.S. military. Wednesday's attacks took place near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and Ramadi, about 70 miles (110 km) west of Baghdad. Mosul was the site of a fierce firefight Tuesday that killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq, said Wednesday that the killings of Saddam's sons would deal a blow to guerrillas who have been attacking U.S. forces in the country. (Saddam sons killed, ) But L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator of Iraq, admitted there was a risk of revenge attacks by Saddam loyalists. In a White House Rose Garden appearance Wednesday, President Bush said the deaths of Saddam's sons prove "the former regime is gone and will not be coming back." The president touted what he called Bremer's "comprehensive strategy" to restore order in Iraq and also called on other countries to assist the U.S.-led occupation. (Full story) Since May 1, when Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq, 42 soldiers have died from hostile fire, including Thursday's fatalities. Another 57 have died in accidents and what the Pentagon calls "non-hostile" incidents since then. A total of 237 U.S. military personnel have been killed since the war in Iraq began in March. () Pentagon releases troop rotation planWar-weary U.S. troops will begin rotating out of Iraq as soon as August, the Army's vice chief of staff said Wednesday, and the U.S. troop presence in that country will begin to decline by the second half of 2004. "First in is first out, so the 3rd [Infantry Division] is coming out in August and September," said Gen. John Keane, following a briefing with the House Armed Services Committee on Iraq. The Army's 3rd Infantry Division was the first unit to reach Baghdad. It has sustained the most deaths of any U.S. military division in Iraq, with 37 3rd Infantry Division soldiers killed in action, said a spokesman for the unit's home base at Fort Stewart, Georgia. About 9,000 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division arrived in the Central Command region in two groups -- in September 2002 and this January. Some have complained bitterly that there has been no exit strategy planned for them. Replacing the 3rd Infantry Division will be soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in a six-month-long rotation. Keane said the overall number of U.S. troops in Iraq -- now at about 156,000 -- will begin dropping by late next year. The last troops to be rotated out of Iraq -- in April 2004 -- would be the 173rd Airborne Brigade. That unit would not be replaced, a move that would effectively lower the number of personnel inside the country. The Pentagon has been under pressure to put together a plan to inject fresh troops into Iraq to relieve tired and demoralized service members, who have been facing almost daily attacks since Bush announced the end of major combat May 1. Meanwhile, the Arabic-language TV network Al Arabiya aired an audiotape Wednesday, purportedly from deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, urging Iraqis to resist U.S. forces. Al Arabiya said the tape was recorded on July 20 -- two days before U.S. forces killed Uday and Qusay Hussein. On the tape, the speaker urges Iraqis to "raise troops in resistance" and fight against the "invading forces." (Full story) Other developments• Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry said Wednesday he believes intelligence about Iraq's suspected weapons programs and links to al Qaeda was "overstated" during the debate over war. "I am surprised that we have not found something in Iraq sooner," said Perry, who led the Pentagon during part of the Clinton administration. "We don't know the explanation for that, whether it was destroyed, whether it's hidden, whether it was appropriated by Iraqi colonels and therefore is someplace out still to be used, or whether the intelligence was overstated." • The Russian Foreign Ministry declined to speculate Wednesday on what effect the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein might have on Iraq. "It is hard to say how this fact might influence further development of the situation in Iraq because the change of regime has already taken place," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said. Russia had joined Germany and France in opposing U.S. military action in Iraq, citing the need for further weapons inspections. The country now supports the idea of a new Security Council resolution under which it might consider sending peacekeepers to Iraq. CNN Correspondents Rym Brahimi, Nic Robertson, Barbara Starr and Harris Whitbeck and Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report. |
Right. One hopes that we are now getting excellent intel; that these KIAs are the result of confronting the die-hards.
Again today they showed masked Iraqis holding RPGs and pictures of Saddam and his sons.
All I see are humvees in Mosul. Where are the APCs or tanks?
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