|
US troop deaths surge in Iraq
21/01/2007 09:28 - (SA)
Baghdad - US troop casualties in Iraq surged on Sunday as a helicopter crash, a clash with militiamen and bombs killed more than 20 soldiers in two days.
As a new spearhead brigade of US paratroopers began to deploy in Baghdad, five US soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with militiamen in the shrine city of Karbala, where the Shiite mourning period of Ashura began Sunday.
In the deadliest incident involving US troops in recent months, a transport helicopter crashed northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, killing all 13 service personnel on board.
It was one of the worst chopper accidents since US-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The bloodshed comes amid heightened US and Iraqi pressure on Shiite militias blamed for much of the sectarian violence that has gripped Iraq and particularly Baghdad since February 2006.
A 3 200-strong brigade from the US 82nd Airborne Division has begun to deploy in Baghdad as part of a US-Iraqi plan to quell the violence, the military said.
In a separate statement, the military said the Karbala firefight erupted on Saturday at a centre where Iraqi security forces, civilian officials and coalition forces were meeting to discuss security for the Ashura ceremony.
"The provincial joint coordination centre in Karbala was attacked with grenades, small arms and indirect fire by an illegal armed militia group on January 20," the statement said. Three US soldiers were also wounded.
"A meeting was taking place at the time of the attack to ensure the security of Shiite pilgrims participating in the Ashura commemorations," US Brigadier General Vincent K Brooks was quoted as saying.
Ashura, which commemorates the seventh-century slaying of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein in Karbala, has been marred in recent years by attacks by Sunni extremists that have killed scores of people.
Another US soldier was killed by roadside bomb in northern Iraq, a statement said Sunday, correcting an earlier US report that two soldiers had died.
The latest fatalities brought the US military's losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 3 045, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
As the death toll surged, a Newsweek poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans opposed sending more troops to Iraq, the cornerstone of President George W Bush's policy shift for the war-torn nation.
- AFP
|
News
