Iraq Mortar Attack Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers

Associated Press ^ | 12/22/04 | VIJAY JOSHI

[TexKat]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. soldiers were killed in a mortar and rocket barrage on a camp in central Iraq, U.S. officials said Thursday.

In separate incidents, gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Iraqi women who worked in the laundry at a U.S. military base, killing four of them, and the security chief of Spanish troops was wounded during a raid south of the capital.

Elsewhere, gunmen firing from a van killed two Iraqi policemen and wounded three others in an attack Thursday on a checkpoint between Fallujah and Ramadi in the tense region west of Baghdad, police said.

Maj. Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division, said insurgents fired mortars and rockets at a U.S. military encampment outside the town of Baqouba on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and critically injuring another. The three were standing outside the operations center when the projectiles landed, she said.

Their deaths brought to 505 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the U.S.-led coalition launched the Iraq war March 20.

Also Thursday, the 23-year-old son of a former senior official from Saddam Hussein's Baath party was slain in the southern city of Basra by an unidentified gunman, police said.

The attack on the women took place Wednesday in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, when the nine women were being driven to work, said Khajiq Serkis, the driver who was shot in the leg.

He told The Associated Press from his hospital bed that he was part of a three-car convoy being chased by the four attackers in a Opel sedan, their faces covered by scarves. Serkis said his minibus lagged behind and the gunmen shot the tires before firing indiscriminately at the occupants.

Four women were killed and the other five were injured in addition to Serkis, said police Col. Sabbar Fadhel.

Most of the women were dozing when the shooting started, said a survivor, Vera Ibrahim, 39. She said the driver continued to speed until he too was hit.

All the victims, who were Armenian or Assyrian Christians, worked at a nearby U.S. military base in Habbaniyah. The women worked in the laundry and Serkis was employed as a mechanic and driver.

"Jews are more merciful than them," said Seita Noubar, 48, a sister of one of the victims, Sona Noubar, 50. "If they were real men, they would have attacked men ... not poor women."

Insurgents have attacked police and Iraqi officials who worked for the Americans. On Sunday a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a gate to coalition headquarters used by Iraqis who work there. Thirty-one people were killed.

Grieving relatives told the AP the victims didn't want to work for the Americans but were forced to because of poverty.

But unable to bear the fear of retribution, Askhik Varojan, 42, had decided to quit and was going to the air base Wednesday to collect her salary, said her sister, Eida Varojan.

Former Baath party members and other Saddam loyalists are believed behind most of the guerrilla attacks against the U.S.-led coalition forces, often setting off car bombs and roadside explosives that have killed hundreds of Iraqi men and women.

Fallujah and Baqouba, where the American soldiers were killed, are in the so-called Sunni Triangle stronghold of Saddam supporters.

U.S. forces have struggled to bring peace in the country while racing to meet its promise to end its occupation and hand over power to a transitional Iraqi government on July 1.

The plan calls for selecting a legislature through caucuses in Iraq's 18 provinces in May, which would later appoint a provisional government that will prepare for full elections in 2005.

Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, however, has opposed the caucuses, instead demanding elections.

Coalition officials maintain there is not enough time to hold legislative elections because of the unstable security situation and the absence of voter rolls and an election law.

The two sides, however, seemed to be showing flexibility after the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday he will consider sending a team to Iraq to see if elections were possible.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite political leader, said Wednesday al-Sistani appears willing to accept whatever decision the proposed United Nations team makes.

U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer has also offered to broaden participation in the caucus system to accommodate al-Sistani's demands but insists that the July 1 deadline for transferring sovereignty is final.

Britain, the staunchest ally of the United States, said Thursday accelerating the timetable for elections in Iraq would be "difficult."

"We are as keen as anyone for the democratic voice of the Iraqi people to be heard as soon as possible ... (but) holding elections before July would be difficult," said a spokesman of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Shiites, who form an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, were brutally suppressed during the days of Saddam when the minority Sunnis controlled power. They believe that only elections can guarantee them their right share of power and fear caucuses will give Sunnis and other minorities a disproportionate share of the government.

Meanwhile, in the southern city of Diwaniya, 120 miles south of Baghdad, Spanish Civil Guard commander Gonzalo Perez Garcia was shot in the head after a pre-dawn raid with Iraqi police at the home of a suspected terrorist leader Thursday, according to a Spanish Defense Ministry statement in Madrid.

He was taken to a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad in a serious condition.

_

Associated Press correspondents Sabah Jerges and Nadia Abou El-Magd in Baghdad, Paul Garwood in Tikrit and Sameer N. Yacoub in Fallujah

[TexKat]

May God bless and comfort the families of these brave heros and may God open the gates of his kingdom and welcome these battle worn soldiers in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

[TexKat]

bump

[TexKat]

May God comfort and keep the families of the innocent Iraqis that were killed.

[TexKat]

Relatives of Askhik Varojan, who was killed when unidentified assailants opened fire on a minibus in which she was traveling in Fallujah, Iraq, react as her body is brought to their family home in Baghdad Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004. Gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Iraqi women to work at a U.S. military base, killing three of them, relatives said. It appeared the women were targeted because they worked for the occupation force. Form left to right are an unidentified sister of Varojan, daughter Emma Hagob, daughter Angel Hagob, and an unidentified relative. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Relatives of Najia Adam Shabu, who was killed when unidentified assailants opened fire on a minibus in which she was traveling in Fallujah, Iraq, bury her at a cemetery in Baghdad Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004. Gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying Iraqi women to work at a U.S. military base, killing three of them, relatives said. It appeared the women were targeted because they worked for the occupation force. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

US soldiers stand guard near the crater in the ground after an explosion in Baquba. Three US soldiers were killed and another wounded near Baquba, while four Iraqi women going to work at a US base were mown down by guerrillas.(AFP/File/Karim Sahib)

A Shi'ite Muslim man waves an Iraqi flag during a demonstration by protesters demanding that the status of toppled leader Saddam Hussein be changed to that of a war criminal, allowing his execution, in central Baghdad January 20, 2004. Photo by Faleh Kheiber/Reuters

A British soldier on patrol in southern Iraq. A coalition military spokesman told AFP that a British soldier was killed in an automobile accident in the southern Iraqi city of al-Amarah.(AFP/File/Ahmad Al-Rubaye

Spanish soldiers on patrol in southern Iraq (news - web sites). A Spanish paramilitary policeman was shot in the forehead and very seriously wounded in an 'anti-terrorist operation' in southern Iraq.(AFP/File/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)

[TexKat]

Five hundred combat boots in formation, representing the over five hundred American soldiers killed to date in Iraq, line Chicago's Federal Plaza, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004. The boots were placed in the plaza along with a list of all the names of the soldiers who died by the American Friends Service Committee to protest the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Brian Kersey)

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks, Kat. Prayers going out, absolutely.

I waited through 45 minutes of other "news" to hear this report on FoxNews this morning. Should have checked the AP doomsayers.

Pinged the list to an earlier thread. Your headline's more accurate. I'm moving comments over.

8 Three US soldiers killed and one wounded in Iraq 

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

 

 

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Prayers going out for the friends and loved ones of our fallen and wounded 4th Infantry Division Soldiers.

 

Prayers that our free reporters will open their eyes, and honor our fallen warriors by learning about, reporting on  and remembering always  the daily sacrifices, the major accomplishments of our warriors in Iraq ~ along with the misrepresentative, daily litany of negative "news".

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Combined Joint Task Force 7 release: 

 

Two Soldiers Killed, One Wounded In Mortar Attack

TIKRIT, Iraq - Two 4th Infantry Division soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded in a mortar attack on a forward operating base near Ba'qubah in the evening of Jan. 21. The wounded soldier was treated immediately and was evacuated to 21st Combat Support Hospital. The soldier is in critical but stable condition.

Rockets were also used in the attack but caused no damage or casualties. Coalition forces identified from where the attack came and fired artillery shells and mortar rounds in response. There was no indication that the enemy sustained casualties as a result of the Coalition counterattack.

The soldiers' names are being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

The incident is under investigation.

Release #040122a

http://www.cjtf7.army.mil/media-information/january2004/040122a.htm

[solo gringo]

It tears my heart apart to hear about the loss of one of our men and women in iraq or anywhere else.Lord please confort the familys of our fallen heros and help them heal thier broken hearts we ask in your name Amen.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Amen. Maybe some day we'll be able to thank them in 'person.'