6 U.S. Soldiers Killed, 4 Injured In Baghdad
BAGHDAD, July 1 (IslamOnline.net &
News Agencies) – Few hours after
an American helicopter gunship
reportedly bombed a mosque in
Fallujah killing ten Iraqis, six U.S.
soldiers were killed and four others
injured in two separate attacks in
central and southern Baghdad on
Tuesday, June 1.
The first attack occurred at 10:00
am (0600 GMT) when unknown
persons fired a rocket-propelled
grenade on a U.S. Humvee light
multi-wheeled vehicle near a gas
station in the al-Mustansiriya
neighborhood, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported quoting witnesses.
Four U.S. troops were killed and two
others wounded in the attack, they
said.
The American casualties were immediately removed from the scene,
witnesses told AFP.
An Iraqi civilian was also wounded and taken to hospital, said the
witnesses, confirming that his 18-seat transport bus parked by the
gas station was completely burnt.
There was no immediate confirmation by the U.S. military of the
attack or the casualties.
On Fire
In the southern Iraqi city of Yusufiyeh, an American military vehicle
plunged into a hole on a road south of Baghdad, while angry Iraqis set
fire to a second vehicle that came to their aid, with Al-Jazeera
reporting that two U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in
the incident.
In a conflicting report, AFP quoted witnesses as saying that two
American soldiers were only injured.
"It was an accident. There were two vehicles and the first drove into
a hole in the highway. The second stopped, the soldiers got out, and
Iraqis approached the second vehicle and set fire to it," Nabil
al-Raheem, an Iraqi, said.
He added that two U.S. soldiers had been injured when their vehicle
crashed, but did not say how the Iraqis had set fire to the other
vehicle.
Witnesses had earlier said the blaze was the result of a
rocket-propelled grenade attack.
Another witness, Saif Taoma, backed up Raheem's account, adding
that Iraqis had poured gasoline on the second vehicle to set it on fire.
"U.S. soldiers then started shooting in the air to clear the area," he
said.
He added that a helicopter had arrived to evacuate the two injured
soldiers, while U.S. troops removed the first vehicle.
The two-meter deep hole was filled with rubbish, suggesting it had not
been recently created, and was not an ambush.
An American military spokeswoman was unable to confirm the incident,
which occurred on the southern highway near Yusufiyeh, about 20
kilometers (13 miles) from Baghdad.
Quagmire
But the United States rebuffed reports
Iraq was becoming a quagmire,
struggling to defeat perceptions that
the occupation of Iraq has reached a
cul-de-sac.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld said that the U.S. troops in
Iraq would not be deterred by any
"hostile" actions to stop them and
insisted on efforts to pacify and
stabilize Iraq.
"We're in a global war on terrorism and
there are people that don't agree with
that," he argued.
"If you want to call that a quagmire, do it. I don't.
"We've been in discussions with something in excess of 20 nations
about what they will be able to provide," Rumsfeld said.
"I don't know how anyone can internationalize it more than that. The
effort has been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks."
A new poll indicated the steady dose of bad news was eroding public
American support for the Iraq war.
Only 56 percent of respondents in the U.S.A. Today/CNN/Gallup poll
said Iraq was worth going to war over, down from 73 percent in April.
Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers complained Sunday, June 29, that the
administration had not done enough to encourage other countries to
share the burden of Iraq, a suggestion Rumsfeld was quick to reject
when asked to react.
Some 9,200 troops from around 15 countries are expected in Iraq by
the end of the summer as part of a Polish-led force to augment the
150,000 U.S. and 12,000 British troops already there.
"Whether we need additional troops or not, I don't know. But I do
know this, that a lot of our soldiers are getting very tired, and a lot of
our reservists have been on active duty for a very extended period of
time," Republican Senator John McCain, one of those pushing for more
international support, told CBS television Sunday.
U.S. President George W. Bush warned June 21 that the U.S. forces in
Iraq were facing a future of "danger and sacrifice.
"The men and women of our military face a continuing risk of danger
and sacrifice in Iraq," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Rumsfeld said he also has asked General Richard Myers, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lieutenant General John Abizaid,
incoming chief of the U.S. Central Command, to report by mid-July on
whether U.S. forces in and around Iraq are adequate and whether any
units should be replaced with fresh troops.
The rising U.S. death toll in postwar Iraq prompted U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell to urge the American people to "demonstrate the
patience and the understanding of the situation," and not to increase
calls to bring the troops out of Iraq.
"I hope the American people will demonstrate the patience and the
understanding of the situation," he said.
islam-online.net |
