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Bomb kills 10 US Marines, wounds 11 in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-03 08:55
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed 10 Marines and wounded 11 others on a
foot patrol near Fallujah, the U.S. military announced Friday. It was the
deadliest attack against American troops in four months.
The ambush occurred Thursday against Marines from Regimental Combat Team 8,
based at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Marine unit has suffered some of the highest
casualties of the Iraq war.
U.S. Army soldiers
from the 101st Airborne Division inspect the site of a car bomb in Samara,
Iraq Friday, Dec. 2, 2005, which caused no loss of life. In a separate
incident ten U.S. Marines were killed and 11 wounded by a roadside bomb
near Fallujah on Thursday, which was announced by the Marine Corps on
Friday, in the deadliest attack on American troops in three months.
[AP] | The unit's latest losses were among 14 new deaths in Iraq announced by the
military Friday. With at least 793 American lives lost since January, 2005
appears on track to become the deadliest year for the troops since the U.S.-led
invasion in March 2003. There were 846 deaths in 2004, and 485 the previous
year.
Altogether, at least 2,124 have died since the beginning of the war,
according to an Associated Press count.
The attack in Fallujah came a day after President Bush outlined his strategy
for victory in Iraq, and at a time when there are growing calls for an exit plan
for U.S. troops.
Hours after the military announced its grim news, Al-Jazeera broadcast a
videotape and statement in which the kidnappers of four Christian peace
activists threatened to kill the hostages 錕斤拷 two Canadians, an American and a
Briton 錕斤拷 unless all prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi detention centers are freed by
Dec. 8.
The roadside bomb in Fallujah, the former insurgent headquarters west of the
capital, was fashioned from several large artillery shells, the military said.
Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, called the ambush a "very serious attack," saying "it
appears that this group of Marines had collected 錕斤拷 which is always a dangerous
thing 錕斤拷 in sort of one location."
The military statement said seven of the wounded later returned to duty and
that the rest of the team was conducting "counterinsurgency operations
throughout Fallujah and the surrounding area" to improve security for the Dec.
15 elections.
Names of the victims were not released pending notification of their
families. The statement also did not give the precise location of the attack 錕斤拷
the single deadliest against U.S. troops in Iraq since 14 Marines were killed
Aug. 3 when a bomb destroyed their vehicle near Haditha, 140 miles northwest of
Baghdad.
Maj. Cliff W. Gilmore, a spokesman at Camp Lejeune for the II Marine
Expeditionary Force, said the victims of Thursday's ambush probably came from
hometowns across the country rather than from one area.
"Here at Camp Lejeune, we pause, we stop, we feel it, and then we carry out
with the mission," Gilmore said. "Those folks in Iraq, they probably didn't even
have time to pause and think about it. ... The folks that are on patrol right
now might not have even heard of it."
Also Friday, three U.S. soldiers from the 48th Brigade Combat Team were
killed in a traffic accident south of Baghdad, and the military said an Army
soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division died of wounds suffered the previous
day when his vehicle was struck by a rocket in Ramadi, 70 miles west of the
capital.
U.S. forces have stepped up military operations throughout the Sunni Arab
regions west of Baghdad to cut off the flow of weapons, ammunition and foreign
fighters entering the country from Syria and to reduce insurgent activity.
As part of that campaign, the U.S. military on Friday launched a new
offensive 錕斤拷 Operation Shank 錕斤拷 in Ramadi, capital of the insurgent-ridden Anbar
province. About 200 Iraqi army soldiers and 300 U.S. Marines were taking part in
the offensive, the fifth in Ramadi since Nov. 16.
On Thursday, insurgents allowed a local AP Television News cameraman to film
gunmen as they strolled briefly through empty streets, kneeled with their
weapons at the ready and issued a declaration claiming they were "controlling
the city." Ramadi has been the scene of repeated insurgent attacks but the U.S.
military disputed claims the rebels control a significant area of the city.
Fallujah, located about 40 miles west of Baghdad, was an insurgent bastion
until U.S. forces overran the city in November 2004 in the most intense urban
combat of the Iraq war.
Since then, the U.S. military and the Iraqi government have been working to
rebuild Fallujah and limit the return of insurgents, many of whom slipped out of
the city during the siege and moved into nearby towns and villages outside the
security cordon.
Regimental Combat Team 8 is a part of the II Marine Expeditionary Force. In
the nearly three years since the war began, 147 Marines from II MEF have died in
combat, according to 2nd Marine Division spokesman Lt. Barry Edwards. Regimental
Combat Team 8 has been in Iraq since the beginning of February.
U.S. officials hope the operations will enable Sunni Arabs to vote in the
parliamentary elections without fear of insurgent reprisals 錕斤拷 which the
Americans blame in large part for the Sunni boycott of the January balloting.
Washington hopes a big Sunni turnout will produce a government that can win
the trust of the Sunnis, the backbone of the insurgency, and convince more of
them to lay down their arms. That would hasten the day U.S. troops could go
home.
However, many Sunni politicians fear that military operations so close to the
election will have a negative impact by frightening voters away from the polls
and deepening hostility to the Americans and their Iraqi partners.
A major Sunni clerical group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, appealed to
the Arab League and human rights organizations to intervene with the Americans
to stop "the massacres in Anbar." The Association is believed to have ties to
some Sunni insurgent groups and is an outspoken critic of the American role in
Iraq.
U.S. casualties have been increasing in recent weeks at a time of growing
discontent within the United States over the Iraq conflict.
American commanders say they have been making gains in the war. On Thursday,
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a coalition operations officer, said suicide bombings
declined to 23 in November because of successful military operations in the
Euphrates River valley west of the capital.
However, U.S. and Iraqi officials have also predicted an increase in
insurgent attacks as the election approaches. As part of security measures for
the vote, Iraq's Interior Ministry has banned all non-Iraqi Arabs from entering
the country, officials said Friday.
The decision was made Tuesday by Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, said two
senior ministry officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are
not authorized to speak to the media. They said the ban is expected to be lifted
two days after the election.
On Friday, Jordan's airline prevented an Associated Press correspondent of
Egyptian nationality from boarding a plane to Baghdad. Royal Jordanian officials
said they had orders from Iraqi authorities.
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