Four U.S. Marines died when
their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal and they drowned, the military said
Friday, in a region of Iraq known as the Sunni Triangle because of heavy
fighting between Sunni Arab-led insurgents and coalition forces.
The deaths were not a result of enemy reaction, the U.S. command said, but
they raised to at least 12 the number of U.S. service members who have died in
Iraq this week, according to an Associated Press count.
The accident occurred Thursday when the four Marines with Regimental Combat
Team 5 were traveling in a U.S. M1A1 Main Battle Tank near Karmah, 80 kilometers
(50 miles) west of Baghdad in Anbar province where many of Iraq's Sunni Arab-led
insurgent groups are based.
"We are a close-knit family and this loss affects us all," said U.S. Col.
Larry D. Nicholson, commanding officer of Regimental Combat Team 5. "Our
thoughts and prayers are with the families of these Marines during this
difficult period."
The accident was under investigation, and the military said no other
information was immediately available, including what kind of operation the
Marines were taking part in and whether fighting with insurgents was under way
in the area at that time.
Elsewhere, three U.S. Army soldiers were killed Thursday when roadside bombs
hit two U.S. convoys southwest of Baghdad, the military said. The U.S. command
also announced that a U.S. soldier died Tuesday from non-combat related wounds.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,434 the number of members of the U.S.
military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003,
according to an Associated Press count.
Three months ago, Iraq's freely elected Parliament took office, but the
country's complex mix of Shiite, Sunni-Arab and Kurdish politicians are still
trying to form a Cabinet that will make the government fully operational.
The framework was put in place last month with the appointment of Nouri
al-Maliki as prime minister-designate. Al-Maliki, a Shiite, is trying to put
together the Cabinet, but the process has bogged down over who will lead the
defense and interior ministries. The former is responsible for the Iraqi
military, the later Iraq's police forces.
U.S. officials hope a new unity government can win public confidence and
quell the violence so that American and other international troops can go home.
But delays in the political process have led to a surge of sectarian
violence, including the kidnapping and killing of civilians by death squads,
raising fears of a civil war in Iraq.
That problem was obvious on Thursday, when U.S. and Iraqi forces rescued
seven Sunni Arab men seized by suspected Shiite militiamen near Baghdad.
The kidnapping was the latest in a wave that is plaguing the country, killing
hundreds of people. Many of the abductions are part of the sectarian warfare in
the Iraqi capital, home to large communities of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Iraqi police said the hostage drama started Thursday morning in two Sunni
villages near Khan Bani Saad, 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad,
when dozens of gunmen, some of them wearing military uniforms, raided and
abducted 10 young men.
Village leaders and clerics alerted police and U.S. soldiers, who rushed to
the scene, clashed with the gunmen and rescued seven of the hostages, police
said. Three others were missing and presumed taken away by gunmen, police said.
U.S. troops killed at least one kidnapper and wounded another, said Lt. Col.
Thomas Fisher, commander of the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor. Some of the hostages
had been severely beaten, he told Associated Press TV News.
More than 30 people were taken into custody, Iraqi police said, and
interrogators were trying to determine their identities. Some gunmen told police
they belong to the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and
had come from Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.
Kidnappings are believed to have risen steadily since the U.S.-led invasion
of 2003, although police believe few are reported. A study by the Brookings
Institution estimated that between 30 and 40 Iraqis were kidnapped per day in
the Baghdad area alone during March, compared with two a day in the capital in
January 2004.
Fisher said the incident may have been "tribal in nature." He did not
elaborate, but tensions have been running high for months between Shiite and
Sunni communities in religiously mixed Diyala province.
With the rise in sectarian tensions, much of the violence has shifted from
Sunni insurgent strongholds such as Anbar province to Baghdad and other areas
with a mixed population.
The shift has impacted heavily on civilians, many of whom have been targeted
simply because of their religious affiliation. According to the Health Ministry,
952 people were killed nationwide last month in "terrorist" violence, among them
686 civilians.
By comparison, ministry figures showed that 548 civilians were killed
nationwide in January, 545 in February and 769 in March.
