|
Six GIs killed in Iraq; 20 die in bombing
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-03 09:19
A suicide bomber detonated a minibus Wednesday in an outdoor market packed
with shoppers ahead of a Muslim festival, killing about 20 people and wounding
more than 60 in a Shiite town south of Baghdad. Six U.S. troops were killed, two
in a helicopter crash west of the capital.
U.S. soldiers from
the Third Infantry Division patrol along the airport road in Baghdad,
Iraq, Monday, Oct. 31, 2005. Six U.S. soldiers were killed in two bombings
on Monday, the military said, making October one of the deadliest months
for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. [AP] |
| Also
Wednesday, the U.S. command confirmed moves to step up training on how to combat
roadside bombs — now the biggest killers of American troops in Iraq. At least
2,035 U.S. military service members have died since the Iraq conflict began in
March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The suicide bombing occurred about 5 p.m. in the center of Musayyib, a
Euphrates River town 40 miles from Baghdad. On July 16, nearly 100 people died
in a suicide bombing in front of a Shiite mosque in Musayyib.
Witnesses said the latest attack took place as the market was crowded in
advance of the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Islamic
holy month of Ramadan. Many women and children were feared among the dead and
wounded.
"They want to kill people before the feast," said Nagat Hassoun, 50, who
lived a few hundred yards from the blast site. "They want people to stay at home
and live in a tragedy. The aim is to cause sabotage. They're targeting the
Shiites."
The town police chief, Lt. Col. Ahmed Mijwil, said 22 people were killed and
61 wounded. But officials warned the figures could change as rescuers
frantically searched the area of meat and vegetable stalls, shops and cafes.
"The insurgents wanted to cause as many casualties as possible," said police
Capt. Muthanna Khalid.
Elsewhere, fighting flared between U.S. troops and Sunni Arab insurgents in
Ramadi, capital of Anbar province 70 miles west of Baghdad. Late Tuesday, a U.S.
Marine and sailor were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle
in Ramadi.
Sporadic clashes occurred throughout the night and into Wednesday, residents
said. Associated Press Television News video from the city showed a burning
civilian vehicle and what appeared to be a destroyed U.S. Humvee.
A crowd of Iraqis gathered at the site, and one man, waving the remnants of a
damaged U.S. M-16 rifle in the air, claimed the attacks caused U.S. casualties.
Later Wednesday, a Marine AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed just
north of Ramadi, killing its two Marine crew members, the military said. A U.S.
statement said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
But APTN quoted an Iraqi resident as saying the helicopter was shot down.
Hours after the crash, a Marine Corps F-18D fighter jet dropped two 500-pound
bombs on what the U.S. military described as an "insurgent command center" about
400 yards from where the helicopter went down.
There was no report of casualties in the airstrike.
In Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was mortally wounded when
his patrol came under small arms fire Wednesday, the military said. One
insurgent was killed when the American patrol returned fire and another died
when a U.S. Air Force jet blasted the building where he had taken refuge, the
military added.
The sixth fatality was a soldier from the Army's Task Force Baghdad who was
killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday in a southern district of the capital, the
military said.
The latest deaths follow the fourth deadliest month for American troops since
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Most of the 96 Americans killed in October were
victims of roadside bombs.
|
