Attacks Kill 3 U.S. Soldiers in Baghdad
07.07.2003 [11:06]
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks on their convoys in the Iraqi capital, the military said Monday, and a third U.S. soldier was fatally shot while waiting to buy a soft drink at Baghdad University.
Also, four U.S. soldiers were wounded after attackers fired a rocket propelled grenade at their convoy in the restive town of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, late Sunday, the military said. One Iraqi suspect was killed and another wounded in the attack.
The wave attacks come as U.S. troops on patrol and Iraqi police and civilians perceived to be working with the occupying forces are being targeted for daily assaults by insurgents.
The first soldier died in a firefight late Sunday after two armed assailants opened fire on his convoy, said Sgt. Patrick Compton, a spokesman for the military. The soldiers responded with fire, killing one of the attackers and wounding the other. The wounded suspect was taken into custody.
In the second convoy attack in Baghdad, insurgents threw a homemade bomb at a U.S. vehicle early Monday morning, killing a soldier. Both of the dead American soldiers were from the Army's 1st Armored Division, the Germany-based division which is charged with occupying Baghdad. They were in different convoys.
In the third attack, an assailant shot and killed a U.S. soldier waiting to buy a soft drink at Baghdad University at midday Sunday, firing once from close range. The style was coldly similar to the killing of a young British freelance cameraman, who was shot in the head outside a Baghdad museum on Saturday.
The point-blank shooting of the unarmed reporter and a grenade attack on a U.N. compound raised concern that Iraq's worsening insurgency - until now targeting only coalition troops and Iraqis accused of U.S. collaboration - will spread to Westerners in general and those seen as cooperating with occupation forces.
On Saturday, a bomb blast in the western town of Ramadi killed seven Iraqi police recruits as they graduated from a U.S.-taught training course. Dozens more were injured.
U.S. Army Maj. William Thurmond said it was too early to tell whether a pattern was emerging that would suggest insurgents are targeting foreign civilians, but he said such a strategy could thwart news gathering and humanitarian relief efforts.
"Hopefully they're isolated events and we won't have to face them in the future," Thurmond said. "It might work to the advantage of someone who's trying to fight the coalition."
The killing of the television cameraman, 24-year-old Richard Wild, occurred around midday, while the victim was carrying no apparent sign that he was a reporter.
Wild, who arrived in the country two weeks ago aiming to be a war correspondent, was killed by a single pistol shot fired into the base of his skull from close range, colleagues said. The assailant fled into the crowd and was not apprehended.
The U.S. soldier killed Sunday at Baghdad University also was shot at close range. The soldier from the Army's 1st Armored Division was evacuated to a combat support hospital after the midday shooting. He died later, the U.S. military said.
In a similar incident, an assailant with a pistol shot and critically injured a U.S. soldier in the neck on June 27 as he shopped on a Baghdad street.
On Saturday, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the United Nation's International Organization for Migration office in Mosul, 240 miles northwest of Baghdad. The grenade slammed into a wall and damaged several cars, said Hamid Abdel-Jabar, a spokesman for the U.N. special representative in Iraq.
"There's no place for that in any civilized part of the world," Thurmond said. "As soon as we get hold of them, they're gone. We'll find them. We'll attack them. And if necessary we'll kill them."
Meanwhile, the United States agreed Sunday to release 11 Turkish special forces detained during a raid in northern Iraq - ending a standoff that strained efforts by the NATO allies to repair relations frayed over the Iraq war, a Turkish official said.
The Turkish soldiers will spend the night at a guest house in Baghdad and will be handed over to Turkish officials in Sulaymaniyah "at daylight" Monday, the high-level government official said on condition of anonymity.
The announcement came after Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Vice President Dick Cheney for about half an hour on the phone Sunday.
Also in Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Turks and Turkish army officers suggested a local U.S. military commander overstepped his authority in ordering the raid. A Turkish paper said the raid came amid reports that Turks were planning to kill an unnamed senior Iraqi official in Kirkuk. Gul has denied any Turkish plot.
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