Two GIs Killed in Attack on Base in Iraq

AP ^ | 6/16/04

[TexKat]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near the city of Balad Wednesday afternoon, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding 21 people, the military said.

Fourteen of the injured were taken to the U.S. Army's 31st Combat Support Hospital and seven were treated at a clinic on the U.S. base, known as Camp Anaconda, according to a military statement.

Balad is 50 miles north of Baghdad.

[TexKat]

Well, something as important as a base, why wouldn't it be patrolled round the clock? Apart from the damage and injuries, hitting a coalition base is a terrific boost in morale for the terrorists.

You can volunteer to be the target of pin the suicide bomber car on the American infidel while he/she is patrolling the base.

See ya if you get back.

[mystery-ak]

They have patrols, scouts and Apaches....and they still get hit, ....

[MEG33]

I have already done so but would like to add my prayers for all loved ones who wait at home for news of their family member in harms way..These waits must be awful.

God Bless Our Armed Forces.

[SMARTY]

I was never in the military, but every time I hear about soldiers being targeted in their stationary positions, I wonder if there are ways to avoid it.

[TexKat]

Two GIs Killed in Attack on Base in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base Wednesday near the city of Balad, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding 26 people, the military said.

Fourteen of the injured were taken to the U.S. Army's 31st Combat Support Hospital and seven were treated at a clinic on the U.S. base, known as Camp Anaconda, according to a military statement.

Air and ground units responded to the attack, the military said. Balad is 50 miles north of Baghdad.

The military statement did not specify whether the injured were U.S. soldiers or included civilians or others on the sprawling compound.

On June 6, a U.S. soldier on the same base was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack. Camp Anaconda was also the scene of a mortar attack last July 4 that wounded 18 U.S. soldiers.

Also Wednesday, saboteurs blasted a key southern pipeline for the second time in as many days, shutting down Iraq's oil exports, and gunmen killed a security chief for the state-run Northern Oil Co.

The latest attacks at Iraq's oil sector have slowed the process of reviving its economy after decades of war, international sanctions and Saddam Hussein's tyranny. Insurgents also are targeting the country's infrastructure apparently to undermine confidence in the new government, which takes power from the U.S.-led coalition June 30.

Elsewhere, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered members of his militia to leave the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa unless they live there, fulfilling a key aspect of an agreement meant to end fighting between his forces and U.S. troops.

Wednesday's attack north of the town of Faw crippled two already damaged pipelines, forcing authorities to stop the flow of crude oil southward to the Basra oil terminal on the Gulf, said Southern Oil Co. spokesman Samir Jassim.

Exports were halted last month through the other export avenue — the northern pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey — after a May 25 bombing, Turkish officials said on condition of anonymity.

Two explosions on the southern pipeline occurred in the same area as a blast Tuesday. It could take up to a week to repair, Jassim said.

In another assault on the country's petroleum industry, Northern Oil Co. security chief Ghazi Talabani was killed in an ambush while going to work in the city of Kirkuk, said Gen. Anwar Amin of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. Three gunmen attacked Talabani's car after his bodyguard briefly left the vehicle in a crowded market. The bodyguard was wounded.

Talabani, the third Iraqi official to be killed since Saturday. was the cousin of the head of one of the two main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Kirkuk sits on some of the world's largest oil reserves. The biggest northern oil field contains an estimated 7 billion barrels of recoverable crude, putting it in the same league as Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, during its heyday in the 1970s.

Saboteurs also blasted a northern oil pipeline about midnight Tuesday near the town of Dibis, some 20 miles west of Kirkuk, said Northern Oil official Mustafa Awad. The Dibis attack did not disrupt exports and the fire was extinguished, Iraqi oil officials said Wednesday.

Iraqi Shi'ite youths parade during a fourth day of mourning for slain Mehdi army militia commander Karim Daram in the Baghdad suburb of al Sadr city June 16, 2004. Daram, who led forces allied with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr in the Baghdad suburb of Al Sadr city, was killed on Saturday night during battles with the U.S. Army. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz

Iraq's southern pipeline has been its main export artery ever since the U.S.-led invasion. Repeated sabotage attacks have forced Iraqis to curtail oil shipments in the north, and most of Iraq's crude exports now come from the south.

[Southack]

Prayers for our guys over there.

This brings our losses so far this month up to 19, but that does at least compare favorably with last month (81) and looks quite better than April (130).

[Rays_Dad]

My best friend is there right now. Thankfully he called his wife and told her that he is OK.

[SMARTY]

Thanks for the clear headed and objective reply. Thanks for not coping an attitude just because I asked a perfectly logical question.

[TexKat]

My best friend is there right now. Thankfully he called his wife and told her that he is OK.

That is great to hear Rays_Dad and I know a relief for your best friends wife.

[Atlantic Friend]

Hey, man, don't mention it. I'm no military expert either, so we were two laymen seeking the truth on their own ! I hope we'll meet again here.

[TexKat]

Heres a new one MEG33.

Remember the curse of the moustache, the insult with the sole of the Iraqi shoe, well here we learn another Iraqi way of expression.

Holding aloft up-turned chairs, Iraqis demonstrators demand that the mayor of Basra be thrown out of office, during a protest in the southern city of Basra, June 16, 2004. REUTERS/Atef Hassan

[mike1sg]

Thank You and I will try and keep everyone informed on the Homecoming of my unit. They and all the Americans there are doing an outstanding job, keep them all in your prayers and thoughts, as will I.

[SMARTY]

That's why it's so hard to read reports of action or engagements the troops are involved in. Without a military background, it's hard to visualize or to fully understand what has taken place.* Also, some things that are reported and are straight forward to others, like this attack on a base, are confusing to me. I always wonder if any one else would have the same question about what he/she read.

*I really did not appreciate the other poster who took a contentious approach to what was really just an honest question.

[MEG33]

Pretty clever!Unseat the mayor!

[SMARTY]

By the way, and just for the record, wouldn't a journalist worth a damn make all this clear? Wouldn't a really good reporter ask himself/herself the same questions we ask ourselves out here in 'news consumer land'? When I read articles which beg really obvious questions, I am convinced that I could do as good a job or better than the 'journalists' on the scene.

[McGavin999]

We're going to have to catch these guys, they're aim is getting better.

[talleyman]

I feel the same way. While I know that armchair quarterbacking is easy and actually running an operation is hard, somebody needs to come up with something, cause this crap has to stop.

[nicko]

just read into this...chances are that our patrols are very effective- thus, the no news is good news for us, but not for prime time...but it isn't difficult to roll up to a position, untarp a pickup and dump out a round, rocket, whatever, then hall ass...the Somalies were fairly successful at it in an area much smaller than Bagdad...as unfortunate as it seems, often the strike is just as much blind luck-

[lovemysoldier]

My husband was in Balad for a year with the 21st Combat Support Hospital. These insurgents fire mortars from the beds of Toyota trucks and then drive away like cowards. Fortunately, they aren't accurate; however, they occasionally hit a target. Pray for all these soldiers...their nights are filled with sounds of mortar fire.