LUND

There were 9 killed yesterday, and its 7 more today??

Seven Marines die in two Iraq attacks

Tuesday, August 2, 2005; Posted: 2:21 p.m. EDT (18:21 GMT)



A soldier stands near wreckage from a suicide car bombing Tuesday in Baghdad.


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Seven U.S. Marines died Monday in two incidents north of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday.

According to military news releases, six Marines died in combat near Haditha, about 135 miles (217 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

Another Marine died in a suicide car bombing near Hit, 95 miles (152 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

All seven were assigned to Regimental Combat Team-2, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.

Insurgents attacked a group of Marines patrolling on foot outside Haditha on Monday, the Marine Corps said in a written statement. Five died in the initial attack, and the body of a sixth was discovered later a few kilometers away. All were killed by small-arms fire, the Marines said.

No further information was released about the gun battle, and the names of the dead were not immediately released.

"The circumstances of the incident are under investigation," the Marines said.

Hit and Haditha are Sunni Arab cities along the Euphrates River. Both have been the subject of recent efforts by U.S. and Iraqi troops to clear out insurgents.

Haditha has been the subject of at least two Marine-led anti-insurgent operations since January. A third operation has targeted areas along the Euphrates between Haditha and Hit.

The deaths brought the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 1,806, according to military reports.

U.S. convoy hit
A suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. military convoy in Baghdad on Tuesday, wounding 29 people, Iraqi police said.

Police said the attacker struck as the convoy traveled though an underpass beneath al-Tahrir Square. Fifteen vehicles were destroyed.

Police said they found the remains of the suicide bomber.

In Baquba, meanwhile, police said gunmen on Tuesday killed a Diyala province Health Ministry official and his driver near Diyala Medical College.

Dr. Abdul Hassan Mehdi was director of Khalis General Hospital in the town of Khalis, police said.

Also in Baquba on Tuesday, a bomb attack on an Iraqi police convoy killed a police officer and a child, police said. Seven police and a civilian were wounded in the blast. Baquba is about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

Terror group commander captured
Iraqi police have captured a top commander of Ansar al-Sunna, a terrorist group blamed for last year's suicide bombing at a U.S. military mess hall in Mosul that killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. troops.

A U.S. military statement released Monday said Majid Mohammed Ahmeen, the group's commander in Diyala province and its self-proclaimed emir, was picked up along with a dozen other Ansar al-Sunna members in a series of raids in July. All are being held by coalition forces in Baquba.

Military spokesman Maj. Steve Warren said Iraqi police also seized videotape during the raids that shows insurgents carrying out attacks.

Two commanders of Ansar al-Sunna's assassination cells -- Abass Hussain Faissal and Rahd Mohamed Mahmood -- were among those captured during the raids. The military statement said those cells have been linked to at least 20 assassinations, including the death of Kathim E-Ekza, a member of the Khatoon city council.

According to the statement, Ahmeen coordinated with al Qaeda in Iraq and the Revolution of 1920 Group to conduct complex attacks in Baquba and throughout Diyala province.

Bluesman

Were you smiling when you posted this up, lull?

__________________
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

Leader

"There were 9 killed yesterday, and its 7 more today??"

Why do you care? They deserved what they got didn't they? Admit it, you smile every time you see one of these stories.

__________________

Wraith601

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

__________________
"We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France."
-Sir Arthur Wellesley

Anon

I saw a report that six of the Marines killed were Snipers on a patrol. Details are still sketchy, and don't really add up as to how that many snipers would be operating that close together.

So far as i know, it's the single greatest loss of snipers in any one battle in US military history since WWII, and maybe ever, if the report i saw is true.

Ray

It is sad.

But the soldiers always soldier on.

They will continue to do their duty to their country and cause.

Garry

always sorry when hear that young man has died. It was not their fault that they were brought there and they served their duty till the end.

Leader

"It was not their fault that they were brought there"

It's not anyone's "fault."

Garry

Bush did bring them there for a very vague reasons.... and now he has no idea how to stop violence there that kills many tens iraqies every week and many thousands every year..... I don't see violence calming down but only increasing.....

Now young guys from US will have to stay there for quite long.... and that is mistake!

LUND

OHMG guys : 14 more killed today! :

14 US marines, reporter killed in Iraq BASRA, Iraq, Aug 3 (AFP) -


Fourteen US marines were killed in a rebel attack in western Iraq on Wednesday following the death of a US freelance journalist who was gunned down in a relatively calm part of the country.The marines, along with an interpreter, were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb during combat operations near Haditha, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of Baghdad, the US military said. One other marine was wounded. Ansar al-Sunna, an extremist group linked with the Al-Qaeda network, said in an Internet statement that it had killed eight US marines and captured a ninth in western Iraq. It said it had killed some of the marines on Monday by "slitting their throats," while others were shot. The statement could not be verified.It also said its fighters had captured a ninth US marine "who was wounded in an ambush... near Haditha." The group vowed to publish more details on the killings and pictures of the "American prisoner" later.The announcement of the marine deaths came a few hours after the news that US journalist Steven Vincent, 50, was shot dead after being kidnapped Tuesday evening from a street in central Basra.Vincent, who had been in Basra for the last two months, was picked up along with his female Iraqi translator who was also shot twice but survived."There were four gunmen in a white pick-up truck and they kidnapped the two," police lieutenant-colonel Karim al-Zaidi told AFP. "Vincent was killed, while the girl is alive."Vincent wrote for the Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times and the conservative National Review magazine. He had also written a book on Iraq titled "In The Red Zone."(Posted @ 17:15 PST)

Semper Fi

Damn 21 devildogs dead in just 3 days.

I still don't understand how the hell 6 Marine snipers ended up dying in a firefight.

giggs88

I just saw the '14' more killed news this morning.
R.I.P Marines.

LUND

Smiling or crying on my part or yours aint gonna cut the mustard bluesman. This is reality.

I been hearin rumours from my buddies that early next spring our troops are coming back

Shek

Actually, soldiers come back from Iraq after 12-15 months. For Marines, it's every 7 months. As far rumors, you should try looking at some real news outlets. You'll learn that planning for a smaller rotation for OIF 5 is moving forward. I would expect a cut of 25-40,000 troops, all dependent on the current trend of ISF units coming on line at the same rate and for the insurgency to continue to slowly lose steam. Finally, I didn't know that Canada had troops deployed to Iraq, or are you one of the other three deserters who are waiting for your deportation orders so you too can learn how to make small rocks out of big ones?

LUND

Well I am not government affiliated at all. Nor in the military Just a private citizen