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Articles: 650th US soldier killed in Iraq

Posted by admin on Friday, July 09, 2004 - 06:18 AM

Another United States soldier was killed - the 650th since the Iraq invasion - and a fresh hostage drama reportedly unfolded, just two days after Prime Minister Iyad Allawi armed himself with emergency security powers.
The soldier was on patrol in Baghdad overnight when three Iraqis were caught preparing to launch mortars from a truck, the American military said on Friday. It said the US patrol opened fire on the truck, which ignited and set off the mortar rounds triggering a series of explosions which rocked the Iraqi capital. But the patrol was attacked by a second group of insurgents with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. The soldier later succumbed to bullet wounds, the US military said. The death raised to 650 the number of American soldiers killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Earlier on Thursday, five more US soldiers were killed along with two Iraqi National Guards in the northern restive city of Samarra when mortar attacks destroyed the headquarters of the National Guard. Eighteen other US soldiers were also injured as insurgents fired 38 mortars in a surprise attack on the post. The attack resulted in fierce fighting as US force and the Iraqi National Guard shelled suspected hideouts of insurgents around Samarra, causing dozens of casualties, including at least four dead. "The hospital received four bodies and 30 injuries," said Dr Mohammed Fadel at Samarra General Hospital. The streets of Samarra were deserted after the violence as armed masked men with rocket-propelled grenade launchers fanned out. Samarra is a bastion of loyalists of deposed president Saddam Hussein and has also come under the influence of Islamic militants. A new hostage drama, meanwhile, unfolded as the Arab television channel al-Jazeera aired video footage of two men described as Bulgarian hostages being held captive in Iraq by a group of Islamic insurgents. The group demanded the release of Iraqi prisoners held by US troops within 24 hours, otherwise the hostages would be killed. But Sofia on Friday refused to bow to "blackmail". In a separate incident, the family of a Filipino worker being held hostage in Iraq urged its government to withdraw troops from Iraq. "Please pull out so he can be safe with us," Ulyses de la Cruz, 15, the hostage's son said in a quavering voice in a television interview. "The thing they are asking, let our government give a decision soon." Last month, South Korean translator Kim Sun-Il was beheaded by his captors after Seoul refused to withdraw its troops from the US-led multinational forces operating in Iraq. The US state department, meanwhile, announced that US marine Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun who went missing last month in Iraq had been taken safely to the US embassy in Beirut. The latest violence in Baghdad and Samarra raised perceptions that caretaker Prime Minister Allawi would soon use the new emergency powers granted to him on Wednesday. Iraq's interim government signed into law measures empowering him to impose curfews, restrict the movement of foreigners, open mail and tap telephones, among other things. The government made it clear the legislation was an essential response to a deadly insurgency which continues to claim victims despite the June 28 handover of power to Iraqis by the US-led coalition. On Thursday, the health ministry said that, in June alone, nearly 400 Iraqis were killed and 1 700 wounded in the violence. The new security measures were welcomed by frightened Iraqis who said the law was the need of the hour, but preferred it to be a short-term measure before the elections were held in January 2005. "The situation in Iraq today demands such strict laws, but it can't be a permanent feature. These laws should be used only as a measure to bring in the much required democracy by conducting elections in January 2005", said Adnan Daras, a 31-year-old taxi-driver in Baghdad. He also brushed aside concerns that the new law would put Iraq back to where it was under the tyrannical rule of Saddam. - Sapa-AFP

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