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Dec. 27 MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers killed four Iraqis in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday after coming under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire, U.S. military officials said. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division, which controls a large swathe of northern Iraq, said they were checking for improvised explosives devices often used by guerrillas against U.S. troops when they came under attack.Staff Sgt. Eldon Noble said U.S. troops returned fire, destroying a car from which they had been attacked and killing its four occupants. Iraqi paramedics pulled charred corpses from the car, which U.S. soldiers...

June 8, 2003 Release Number: 03-06-30 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 3 ID PATROL ENGAGED BY SMALL ARMS FIRE FROM MOSQUE CAMP DOHA, Kuwait -- Task Force 3-15 was engaged by small arms fire from a Mosque today near Fallujah. Based from intelligence reports of plans to attack U.S. forces, Task Force 3-15 conducted aggressive patrols in the area to gain contact with enemy forces. However, the Task Force did not engage the attackers in the Mosque. The unit came into contact with an enemy force of an unknown size firing from the same mosque the unit had contact from yesterday. No...

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar — An assailant opened fire on two Humvees in downtown Baghdad (search) on Sunday, wounding four U.S. soldiers, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. One of the soldiers' injuries were serious, the statement said, but did not provide further details. The soldiers were traveling in the Humvees (search), which were stopped in midmorning traffic when an assailant approached and fired at them from a small-caliber weapon, the statement said. It did not say whether the soldiers returned fire or whether the shooter was apprehended. The soldiers, who were taken to a combat support hospital, were...

FORMER Iraqi prime minister Tariq Aziz has told American intelligence officials that he has not seen Saddam Hussein since the first night of the war, it was claimed last night. Aziz, who surrendered to US forces last week, has fuelled speculation that the Iraqi dictator was killed or seriously injured when the bunker in which he was hiding with his sons has hit by cruise missiles. According to US intelligence sources, the 67-year-old has said he does not know whether Saddam is alive or dead. However, he has told his captors he presumes the former Iraqi leader was incapacitated as...

(CBS) A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter was shot down in southern Iraq Wednesday, killing seven of the 11 soldiers aboard, Pentagon officials said. The helicopter was downed by small-arms fire near Karbala, the site of fierce fighting between the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and Iraqi troops, including Republican Guard forces. Four other soldiers on board the Black Hawk were wounded, but rescued by American troops, the officials said. The Black Hawk was the second U.S. helicopter to go down in combat. An Army Apache assault helicopter went down March 24 during an assault on Republican Guard forces; its two pilots...

U.S. Army Occupies Key Buildings in Mosul By KIMBERLY HEFLING .c The Associated Press MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. Army occupied Mosul from the air and on the ground Tuesday with little resistance except scattered small-arms fire, taking custody of a northern city they said was in good shape for quick rehabilitation once the security situation improves. Troops occupied key government buildings, medical clinics, a television station and power plants as they moved in. Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, is home to several ethnic groups, including Arabs and ethnic Kurds, who share it uneasily. Marines had been holding parts of...

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) -- U.S. forces are trying to determine whether more than $600 million in $100 bills found behind a false wall in Baghdad is counterfeit, but if it's real, it belongs to the Iraqi people, U.S. Central Command officials said Tuesday. Using forklifts to handle the heavy, tightly wrapped packets of new bills, soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division hauled the money away for safekeeping, Central Command said. The existence of the money surfaced last week, when the Los Angeles Times and the New York Post reported that troops found at least $656 million in homes...

TV Shows Weakened Iraq Defenses in Tikrit By NICOLE WINFIELD .c The Associated Press CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar (AP) - U.S. Marines were operating Sunday near the dusty desert town of Tikrit, a power center for Iraq's Sunni Muslim tribes that is believed to be the one of the last strongholds of fighters loyal to President Saddam Hussein, U.S. Central Command said. A task force from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was within about 35 miles of the town, approaching from the south, having ``moved north along Highway 1 to Tikrit from Samarra,'' said Lt. Mark Kitchens, a Central Command...

Bob Arnott was just on MSNBC reporting that he had traveled to many of the hospitals in the area and assisted in the care for the many children in the facilities that have been struck by gunfire (he's also a doctor). He said he was unsure what the mood in the hospitals would be but found the doctors and patients to be "ecstatic" that Saddam was gone. He then said that the gunshots were all made by small caliber weapons that the U.S. Army does not have and, when he inquired further about the cause of the wounds, he was...

<p>April 4, 2003 -- THE Army's 299th Engineers could smell the honeysuckle as they dodged bullets and ferried the infantry across the Euphrates to take on the entrenched Republican Guard. The Iraqis were holed up in bunkers and pink adobe cottages on the east side of the river, intent on keeping the U.S. from seizing control of a nearby bridge - just 12 miles from Baghdad.</p>

Additional U.S. and British troops were expected to deploy to the Persian Gulf to reinforce coalition forces fighting the Iraqi military, and British intelligence officials said they now have evidence of a direct link between the Iraqis and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. News report said late Thursday some 30,000 soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division and other units based at Fort Hood, Texas, were to be deployed to the region in the next few days. Another 100,000 ground troops were expected to be deployed in the next month. A defense official told United Press International there was nothing new...

With Charlie Company near Najaf, Iraq -- The roof of the armored personnel carrier was slick with blood. In places, it came over the sides in a cascade of dark red. The blood was from two civilians who had been caught up in a short, vicious firefight at a key intersection. Now a third wounded civilian was being lifted to the roof for transport to a nearby aid station. "Hold the drip bag," 1st Sgt. Jose Mercado shouted at me over the din of tank and small-arms fire and the wind whipping the dust into a thick orange cloud. "You...

WITH THE 5TH MARINES, Iraq, March 27 (UPI) -- An Iraqi armored unit and infantry troops were pummeled with airstrikes and artillery fire Thursday after falling for a trap that lured the Iraqis into vacated U.S. positions in central part of the country. The armored unit, including Soviet-made tanks, were approaching vacated positions across the open desert when two Navy F-14 aircraft swooped down from a bright, clear sky -- the first after three days of vicious dust storms -- and released laser-guided missiles and bombs. Cobra helicopter gunships then buzzed in lower, firing Gatling guns and rocket launchers. Plumes...

U.S. Marines leave trail of death on road north By Sean Maguire NORTH OF NASSIRIYA, Iraq, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Marines pushing north towards Baghdad left a trail of death on Wednesday as they fought off sporadic Iraqi attacks along the way. This correspondent saw about two dozen corpses among wrecked vehicles littering the road north of Shatra, including a bus with its back end blown off and bodies hanging out of the back. Iraqi small-arms fire had erupted earlier in the town of Shatra, 40 km (25 miles) north of Nassiriya, where the Marines had fought their way...

Just before cutting to break, 4:54AM Baghdad time, the MSNBC anchor called a crackling popping sound "small arms fire" in Baghdad. What was this? It was continuous for at least a minute. It was also on the net stream, but eventually died away. Anyone else hear this? I'm going to get "grilled" for this "pop-secret" vanity, but it was truly bizarro. Never heard anything like it. E-Bomb? Or snacking reporter? It sounds like it's back.