This sad news just in: "Iraq blasts kill 6 Marines"
Attacks on U.S. troops up, military says
Friday, October 7, 2005; Posted: 11:36 a.m. EDT (15:36 GMT)
Iraqi children check out the scene of a car bombing Friday in Samarra. A 6-year-old girl died in the explosion.
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six Marines were killed in roadside bombings in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, the Marines said Friday.
A homemade bomb exploded Thursday near Karma, killing four Marines.
Another blast Thursday killed two Marines on patrol in Qaim.
The number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war stands at 1,953.
The violence came amid U.S. military warnings that insurgents may seek to disrupt the October 15 referendum on the new Iraqi constitution. (Watch video of British troops in southern Iraq 1:45)
Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, deputy director of operations for the region, said Thursday that attacks on U.S. troops were on the rise.
"Since about April, May, that had been going down, just every month, until last month," Ham said. "And then in September of '05, it started to come back up again."
He said there were about 152,000 American troops in the country -- up from 140,000 in the summer. The Pentagon says the increase in troop levels is a short-term one that will last through this month's referendum vote.
In Baghdad, a U.S.-led coalition spokesman said the same rise in insurgency strikes occurred as the January 30 elections approached.
A suicide car bombing killed 10 people and wounded eight others Thursday near the Iraqi Oil Ministry in eastern Baghdad, police said. The bomb detonated in a red Kia minibus.
Earlier Thursday, a suicide car bomber targeted a convoy of private American security contractors in central Baghdad, wounding eight Iraqi civilians, police said.
Other developments
Police officers in the southeastern city of Basra were among 12 people whom coalition forces detained in a raid Thursday, the British military said. The suspects -- accused of being involved in and planning attacks in the region -- were held in the Hadem area of the city.
In a high-profile address Thursday, President Bush said the U.S. war on terrorism is not limited to Iraq but is a worldwide conflict against a movement that should not be appeased. He said that Iraq represents "the central front in our war on terror." (Full story)
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that new explosive devices used against coalition troops in Iraq may have come from Iran or the Lebanese-based militant group Hezbollah. "However, we cannot be sure of this at the present time," and the matter is under investigation, Blair said. Iran has denied smuggling allegations (Full story) |
