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| Iraq-Jordan |
| 4 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Gunfire |
| 2004-07-08 |
| Insurgents fired mortar rounds at a headquarters used by U.S. troops and Iraqi forces in the city of Samarra on Thursday, destroying the building and killing four U.S. soldiers, the U.S. military said. An Iraqi guardsman was also killed and a fifth U.S. soldier was unaccounted for. Twenty other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the 10:30 a.m. attack, said Maj. Neal O’Brien, the spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division. U.S. troops secured the area around the collapsed building. American soldiers responded to the attack 25 minutes later, after radar determined where the mortar rounds were fired from. Soldiers counter-fired four 120 mm mortars in response. The wounded soldiers were being evacuated to a Multinational Force hospital. The names of the soldiers killed in action were being withheld pending the notification of next of kin. Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, is located in the so-called Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-coalition resistance. The city has been wracked by violence throughout Thursday. The attack came amid a series of clashes in the city that killed three people and injuring 20 others, said Dr. Abid Tawfiq Director of the Samarra General Hospital. Witness also reported seeing helicopters and tanks in the city. A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy in Samarra earlier Thursday wounded one U.S. soldier, O’Brien said. Iraqi insurgents have long launched mortar and rocket attacks on U.S. bases, most of which cause no significant damage or casualties. At times, when the shells land in populated areas, casualties can number in the dozens. Last month, a rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near the city of Balad, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 people including a pair of civilians, the military said. |
| Posted by:Anonymous5089 |
| #7 actually my boys tell me the rag heads are setting up their mortars in the back of pick-up's and moving after a few rounds. Prolly the reason why they're hard to hit and also why the Iraqis usually suck at landing rounds on us (except in this case unfortunately). Seems like air needs to be called in first. Though 25 min's was prolly the time it took some brass-hole to make the decision to return fire. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-07-08 10:33:48 PM |
| #6 Agree, Verlaine, certainly with the idea of bypass roads. Hell, we build ring-road interstates with 3-digit numbers in this country to move the traffic. Same thing ought to be good enough for the Triangle. That alone would make convoys less vulnerable. Might also ensure that the hard boyz have to break cover to come at us. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2004-07-08 4:16:01 PM |
| #5 The Triangle is oil-free and dependent on transport for their ag and thus very vulnerable to economic pressure. Whoa, don't keep these ideas to yourself. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-08 4:06:18 PM |
| #4 Yeah, that "25 minutes" sort of leaps out at you, doesn't it? Not to mention that if the enemy is smart, they're shooting-and-scooting from a schoolyard, near a market, or somewhere else counter-fire (blind, as this appears to have been) will kill baby ducks and little kittens. A lot we don't know about this situation, as usual, but it is frustrating and infuriating all the same. Jason's idea is similar to what I've though should have been done a long time ago, at least in Fallujah and Baquouba -- build bypass roads so the long-haul traffic doesn't need to go through the worst towns; put a strict vehicle lock-down with checkpoint around the towns; aggressively patrol/bribe/squeeze the locals and their economy so long as they harbor the idiots. The Triangle is oil-free and dependent on transport for their ag and thus very vulnerable to economic pressure. There may have been good reasons not to do so, but it seemed to me last summer that that particular region (politically and economically weak within Iraq, and the source of 99% of the trouble) should have been dealt with both more ruthlessly and more cleverly. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2004-07-08 3:56:10 PM |
| #3 Damn, compare and contrast. Counter battery seems slow. Like the enemy is going to wait 25 minutes to be pounded in return. Adjust your tactics and operations, people. The price for trying to kill U.S. personnel needs to be made very, very high. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-07-08 11:39:23 AM |
| #2 They need to build roads around these Sunni towns,throw up a berm and barb wire,let the women and children out and just sit...nothing goes in and nothing else comes out. |
| Posted by: Jason 2004-07-08 9:50:27 AM |
| #1 American soldiers responded to the attack 25 minutes later Damn, compare and contrast. Counter battery seems slow. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-08 9:30:33 AM |