Ten US troops killed as Iraq debate heats up by Paul Schemm
1 hour, 9 minutes ago
Ten more American soldiers have been killed in fighting in Iraq, the military announced on Sunday, on the eve of war-weary Washington's annual Memorial Day commemoration of its war dead.
But in a victory for US and Iraqi forces, troops liberated 41 people from an Al-Qaeda run torture facility in a lawless province northeast of Baghdad.
Most of the 10 US soldiers were slain in and around Baghdad, the epicentre of Iraq's vicious sectarian conflict and the focus of a controversial 28,000-strong surge in US troop numbers, which is due to peak next month.
Four soldiers were killed in two attacks in the Sunni province of Salaheddin on Saturday, while another four were killed in blasts in the capital. A marine and another soldier died in combat north and west of the capital.
More than 100 US troops have been killed in May so far, while two are still missing two weeks after being snatched by Al-Qaeda, putting the month on course to be one of the bloodiest in the four years since the March 2003 invasion.
The increase in casualties is largely a result of US forces flooding into areas they had previously avoided, like the restive Diyala province, where US-led forces freed the 41 captives.
"This morning we had a combined operation with the Fifth Iraqi Army just south of Baquba and we came upon an Al-Qaeda in Iraq prison camp or, if you will, a hideout," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Donnelly told AFP.
"As we came upon this thing, the captors or whoever was holding them fled the scene. We immediately secured the area and got the prisoners or those that we rescued to safety," he added.
The camp was holding 41 people, all thought to be Iraqi civilians, many of them showing signs of mistreatment ranging from broken bones and bruises to heat injuries caused by being held with insufficient water, he said.
Some of the prisoners had been held for several months.
"It was evident that they were extremely overjoyed to see us," Donnelly said, adding that the camp had been found after a local tip off, something he saw as a good sign in an area traditionally suspicious of the Americans.
Meanwhile, domestic public support for the US mission is falling, and Monday's solemn Memorial Day ceremonies will again focus attention on the bloody price which the United States is paying in its battle to stabilise Iraq.
President George W. Bush, who last week won his struggle to squeeze another 120 billion dollars in war funding from a Democrat-led Congress intent on drawing down troops, has already warned that he expects more violence ahead.
"We can expect more American and Iraqi casualties," he said on Thursday.
"This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy," he added, predicting increasing attacks as the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, prepares to report in September on the progress of the surge.
Senator Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sunday the September report would provide a chance to scale back the 147,000-strong US force.
"But by September, when General Petraeus is to make a report, I think most of the people in Congress believe, unless something extraordinary occurs, that we should be on a move to draw those surge numbers down," Session told CBS television's "Face the Nation."
Despite approving new funds for the military, congressional Democrats are predicting further battles over the handling of the conflict this summer, and rising US casualties could strengthen their position.
"We will oppose the president's failed war policy at every turn," Senate majority leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) said. "This fight will continue every day."
US commanders in the field, however, have welcomed the latest wave of troop reinforcements, which they say has allowed them to better achieve their mission of hunting insurgents and restoring stability.
"It enables me to do more than my predecessors," Colonel Richard Simcock of the 6th Marine Regiment told AFP in the former rebel bastion of Fallujah, after receiving an extra armoured battalion for his restive sector.
Simcock maintains that in his area, the debate in Washington over troop withdrawals has actually resulted in progress on the ground as the Iraqis begin preparing for a future without US forces.
"When our elections happened and we had the change in the House and Senate and they saw we wanted to pull out, they knew we were not staying," he said. "Now they are trying to set things up for success."
In Baghdad, police and medical officials reported continuing violence, with 44 corpses turning up in the capital.
Elsewhere around Iraq at least nine people were killed, including four policemen, in other attacks on Sunday. |
