U.S. military deaths in Iraq pass 1,000
boston.com
By Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press Writer | September 7, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. military deaths in the Iraq campaign passed
1,000 Tuesday, an Associated Press tally showed, as a spike in fighting
with Sunni and Shiite insurgents killed seven Americans in the
Baghdad area.
The count includes 998 U.S. troops and three
civilian contractors killed while working for the
Pentagon. The tally was compiled by the AP based on Pentagon
records, AP reporting from Iraq, and reports from soldiers' families.
It includes deaths from hostile and non-hostile causes since President
Bush launched the Iraq campaign in March 2003 to topple the regime
of Saddam Hussein.
The grim milestone was surpassed after a spike in fighting, which has
killed 14 American service members in the past two days. Two soldiers
died in clashes Tuesday with militiamen loyal to rebel Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr. Five other Americans died Tuesday in separate
attacks, mostly in the Baghdad area.
West of the capital, U.S. warplanes swooped low over Fallujah Tuesday
in airstrikes after seven Marines and three Iraqi soldiers were killed the
day before in a car-bombing near the Sunni insurgent-controlled city.
A group linked to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi --
Tawhid and Jihad -- posted a statement on a militant Web site claiming
responsibility for the attack, describing it as "a martyr operation ... that
targeted American soldiers and their mercenary apostate collaborators
from the Iraqi army."
During a news conference at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld anticipated the tally would soon surpass 1,000 and sought
to play down the milestone.
"When combined with U.S. losses in other theaters in the global war on
terror, we have lost well more than a thousand already," he said.
Rumsfeld said the United States and its allies would not be swayed.
Those who believe deaths would be a deterrent, he said,
"underestimated our country, our coalition. They have failed to
understand the character of our people. And they certainly misread
our commander in chief."
The Bush administration has long linked the Iraq conflict to the war on
terrorism. The Sept. 11 Commission, however, concluded that Iraq and
al-Qaida did not have a "collaborative relationship" before the 2001
attacks on New York and Washington, and some have questioned to
what extent foreign terror groups are involved in the anti-U.S.
insurgency in Iraq.
Fighting between U.S. soldiers and al-Sadr's militiamen erupted
Tuesday when U.S. officials said the cleric's gunmen fired on
Americans carrying out patrols in the Sadr City district of Baghdad.
Two Americans died in the fighting, U.S. officials said.
A senior Iraqi Health Ministry official, Saad al-Amili, said 35 Iraqis were
killed and 203 wounded in the Sadr City clashes. An al-Sadr
spokesman, Sheik Raed al-Kadhimi, blamed "intrusive" American
patrolling for provoking the fighting.
"Our fighters have no choice but to return fire and to face the U.S.
forces and helicopters pounding our houses," al-Kadhimi said in a
statement.
Late Tuesday, the militia announced a unilateral cease-fire but said it
would fight back in self defense. It was unclear whether the statement
had any meaning since the militia routinely defends its actions as
legitimate self defense.
U.S. Army Capt. Brian O'Malley said he was unaware of the cease-fire
offer but that the area was quiet in the early evening. "We only fire
when we are fired at, but we will not stop our patrols or withdraw from
our positions," he said.
At the Pentagon, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, blamed the spike in U.S. combat deaths on an insurgency that "is
becoming more sophisticated in its efforts to destabilize the country."
"We are aggressively seeking and capturing those insurgents who are
not willing to do so themselves, but are encouraging people to commit
suicide attacks," Myers told reporters Tuesday. "Make no mistake, we
will continue to pursue those who seek to disrupt progress in Iraq."
During the Sadr City fighting, U.S. warplanes flew over the sprawling
neighborhood -- home to some 2 million people. American tanks, their
turrets spinning, deployed in key intersections. Ambulances with
sirens wailing rushed the wounded to hospitals as plumes of heavy,
black smoke rose over the mainly Shiite neighborhood.
U.S. forces appeared to be carrying out most -- if not all -- of the
fighting. No Iraqi security forces were seen during the clashes, though
U.S. spokesmen talked of "multinational forces" involved in the
operations, a term that sometimes includes Iraqi troops.
Small groups of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army fighters pounded on the
asphalt with hammers to plant mines and explosives in the streets.
Fighters in their teens and early 20s trotted toward the clashes --
rocket-propelled grenades in hand -- as children scampered behind
them.
Other militiamen, rifles in hand, gathered on street corners. Fighters
using rocks and tires blocked roads leading to the area. By afternoon,
most stores in the neighborhood were shuttered.
Elsewhere, a bomb exploded Tuesday near the convoy of the governor
of the Baghdad region, killing two people. Gov. Ali al-Haidri escaped
injury, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdel Rahman said.
In another part of the capital, armed men in olive green uniforms
stormed the office of an Italian aid group and seized two Italian women
and two Iraqis. It was only the second known kidnapping of foreign
women since a wave of hostage-takings began this year. A female
Japanese aid worker was captured in Fallujah in April but was released
a week later.
Al-Sadr aides said Tuesday's fighting in Sadr City broke out after talks
with interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government stalled. Those
talks followed a deal last month to end fighting between U.S. troops
and al-Sadr's forces in the southern city of Najaf.
The government had refused al-Sadr's demands to keep American
troops out of the Baghdad Shiite neighborhood.
In other developments:
--The son of the governor of the northern Nineveh province, which
includes the city of Mosul, was killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday,
hospital officials said. Lieth Duried Kashmoula was hit by two bullets
in the chest.
--Unknown gunmen killed the deputy director of Baghdad's al-Karama
hospital, Abbas al-Husseini, the Health Ministry said. The motive for
the attack was not known.
--Two Iraqi policemen were killed and two others wounded in a
drive-by-shooting late Monday in Latifiyah, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
--Insurgents opened fire with automatic weapons on 14 Italian soldiers
at a checkpoint by a bridge about four miles north of Nasiriyah, said
Col. Carmelo Abisso, spokesman for the Italian contingent in Iraq. The
Italians returned fire, and the gunfire lasted about an hour, he said.
© Copyright 2004 Associated Press.
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