UPDATE: Filed at 8:04 a.m. ET
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Car Bomb Near Falluja Kills 7 Marines
By The Associated Press
Monday 06 September 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A massive car bomb exploded on the outskirts of Fallujah on Monday, killing seven U.S. Marines and wounding several others, a U.S. military official said.
The strength of the blast sent the engine from the vehicle used in the bombing flying ``a good distance'' from the site, a military official said on condition of anonymity.
Wounded troops were being treated Monday afternoon, the official said.
U.S. forces have not patrolled inside Fallujah since April, when U.S. Marines ended a three-week siege. The city has since fallen into the hands of insurgents who have used it as a base to manufacture car bombs and launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi government forces.
The U.S. military has retaliated by launching several airstrikes on insurgent safe houses in the city.
Witnesses said the attack took place nine miles north of Fallujah and destroyed two Humvees.
Medical teams in helicopters swept into the dusty barren site to ferry away the injured. Troops sealed off the area surrounding the wreckage.
With Monday's deaths and those of two U.S. soldiers in a mortar barrage outside Baghdad a day earlier, 985 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the Defense Department.
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U.S. Marines Killed in Iraq Ambush
BBC
Monday 06 September 2004
At least six US marines have been killed in an ambush on a military convoy on the outskirts of Falluja in Iraq, a US military official says.
Several more were wounded in the attack, which was said to have involved a massive car bomb.
Falluja, 65km (40 miles) west of Baghdad, has witnessed some of the strongest resistance to US-led forces.
US troops have not patrolled inside the city since April after a three-week siege there in which hundreds died.
The US military has launched several air strikes on suspected insurgents in the city in the past few months, with reports of many Iraqi casualties.
Meanwhile, a report says that the number of US soldiers injured in Iraq in August is the highest since the war began.
About 1,100 soldiers and marines are thought to have been wounded last month.
Intense fighting in the city of Najaf last month is partly to blame for high toll, the Washington Post newspaper suggests.
The number of fatalities among US troops was 66, the highest since May, but considerably lower than the 135 combat deaths recorded in April.
There are no official figures available for the number of Iraqi insurgents and civilians killed or hurt.
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