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US troops kill 11 ambushers
04/07/2003 15:21 - (SA)
Jamie Tarabay
Balad, Iraq - US troops killed 11 Iraqi insurgents who ambushed a convoy on a highway north of Baghdad on Friday, hours after mortar rounds slammed into a US base in the same area, injuring 18 American soldiers, the military said.
Another US soldier was shot and killed on Thursday while guarding the Baghdad museum, the US military said on Friday.
The US military said 11 men attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire near Balad, 90km north of the capital. Soldiers of the Army's 4th Infantry Division fired back, killing all the men. None of the Americans was injured.
Late on Thursday, blasts from four mortar rounds rocked a huge US base near Balad, injuring 18 soldiers, said Major Edward Bryja, of the Army's 3rd Corps Support Command.
Two soldiers were seriously injured, with one undergoing surgery in a hospital located on the base and another evacuated for treatment, Bryja said. Others suffered cuts and small punctures from flying shrapnel, with nine soldiers already back on duty, Army officials said.
Soldiers who witnessed the attack said flares and tracer bullets sliced across the night sky after the blasts.
Iron Horse
"This is the first time the base was attacked - and the first time we've seen mortars," said Sergeant Grant Calease, who said he and other soldiers would nonetheless carry on with a planned steak barbecue, in observance of the July 4th US Independence Day.
The wounded soldiers belonged to Task Force Iron Horse, a 33 000-member unit that has been staging raids in the mainly Sunni Muslim areas north of Baghdad where Saddam Hussein drew much of his support.
The task force includes soldiers from the Army's 3rd and 4th infantry divisions, as well as the 101st Airborne Division and 173rd Airborne Brigade.
On Thursday evening, a sniper shot and killed a US soldier who was standing in the gunner's hatch of a Bradley fighting vehicle while guarding the national museum in Baghdad. The soldier was evacuated to a military hospital, but died of his wounds, said US military spokesperson Corporal Todd Pruden. The serviceman's name was not immediately available.
Attackers detonated an explosive on a highway in Baghdad's western outskirts on Friday, injuring three passengers in a civilian car and two US soldiers traveling in a Humvee convoy, according to an Associated Press photographer on the scene.
'RPG Alley'
On Thursday, US troops near Baqubah, northeast of the capital, attempted to draw out attackers by luring them into an ambush on a stretch of road known as "RPG Alley" because of its frequent rocket-propelled grenade strikes. One suspect was killed and three captured in the operation, said Lieutenant Kurt Chapman, with the Army's 4th Infantry Division.
"We're trying to be a little bit more proactive and find them before they get us," Chapman said.
Also on Thursday, the national museum put on display artifacts that were looted after the fall of Baghdad and later recovered. The museum also showed off several items from the Treasures of Nimrud, which were found hidden in a bank vault weeks ago. Curators acknowledged that many of the museum's treasures remain unaccounted for.
News of the strikes brought a somber start to American Independence Day activities for the 150 000 US troops stationed in Iraq.
"We should be celebrating with our families. It is sad. Everybody wants to go home. I am glad that we came here to liberate Iraq, but I think it is time for soldiers to see their families," said Sergeant Thas Eagans from Irving, Texas.
Daily attacks
US soldiers have been beset by daily attacks from an increasingly bold insurgency, raising fear of a political and military quagmire just two months after President George W Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1.
At least 27 US troops have been killed in hostile fire since Bush's statement.
Despite the problems, US troops planned to spend July 4th enjoying barbecues at bases around the country. A lucky few were invited to join Arnold Schwarzenegger for a screening at Baghdad International Airport of the muscle-bound actor's latest movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Schwarzenegger addressed a rambunctious crowd of soldiers in one of Saddam's former presidential palaces located inside the airport compound.
"It is really wild driving around here, I mean the poverty, and you see there is no money, it is disastrous financially and there is the leadership vacuum, pretty much like in California right now," he quipped.
Schwarzenegger, 55, has indicated he may run for governor of California as a Republican if residents there vote to recall the current governor, Gray Davis.
Terminator
"I play terminator, but you guys are the true terminators," he told the soldiers, before heading to the base at Balad that came under attack.
In the north, American forces planned joint celebrations with Iraqi Kurds, who also celebrate July 4 as the anniversary of the naming of their first government in 1992.
US officials have stressed the need to crush an insurgency they blame on Saddam loyalists, who are reportedly warning Iraqis not to cooperate with American occupation authorities, saying the ousted leader will one day come back to punish those who do.
Washington on Thursday put a $25 million bounty on Saddam's head and offered US$15 million for information leading to the capture of either of his sons, Odai and Qusai.
The reward for Saddam matches the bounty that Washington is offering its other top fugitive: Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader missing since US forces helped dislodge the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA
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