Home > 8 American Soldiers Among 10 Perish In Violent Iraq
Even as hundreds of Iraqis came out on streets in support of ousted President Saddam Hussein in the town of Baquba, at least 10 people, including 8 American soldiers, were killed during the past 24 hours across Iraq, reports reaching here said on Monday.
In the first incident, a vehicle accident near the flashpoint city of Fallujah killed four US Marines, a military spokesman said. "The deaths were as a result of a vehicle accident in the Camp Fallujah area and are considered non-hostile," said the spokesman for the Marines who are based around the city, west of Baghdad.
Earlier, the US military had said the four Marines died on Saturday "while conducting security and stability operations" without elaborating on the precise cause of death. Two US soldiers were killed and three wounded when their convoy was targeted in a roadside bomb blast near the restive town of Samarra, the US military said.
"Two 1st Infantry Division Soldiers assigned to Task Force Danger were killed and three other soldiers were wounded in an improvised explosive device attack on their convoy near Samarra at about 4:29 pm," it said.
Militants ambushed a US military patrol in Mosul with a bomb and a hail of gunfire, killing a US soldier and an Iraqi civilian and setting a nearby oil tanker on fire. Thick black smoke poured over the area from an oil tanker set alight in the attack.
Also, militants in Baghdad opened fire on a downtown shop selling alcohol, destroying the merchandise and kidnapping an employee.
According to the US military troops shot dead a man who fired at them after the attack. The bomb blast also wounded a US soldier. "While the injured soldier was being treated following the explosion, a vehicle approached at a high rate of speed and fired on the convoy. The soldiers returned fire killing the driver," the military said in a statement.
A military spokesman said both the soldier who died and the other who was wounded were from the United States.
Meanwhile, a Filipino hostage in Iraq faced imminent death on Sunday as Manila rejected a demand from kidnappers to withdraw its troops early and despite a desperate mission by his wife and brother to beg for his life.
An outfit calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq, Khaled Ibn al-Walid Brigade, has threatened to behead Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz unless the Manila government agrees by 11 pm to withdraw its handful of troops from Iraq within nine days, one month earlier than scheduled.
However, President Gloria Arroyo has bluntly refused to succumb to the threat. "Our government’s stand remains the same as we cannot change our commitment given to the international community," a senior Philippine diplomat in Baghdad said.
A deadline for two other hostages, a pair of Bulgarian truck drivers held by a separate group demanding the release of all Iraqi detainees, expired on Saturday morning. However, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasi said on Sunday that he had unconfirmed information they were alive.
At a news conference in Bulgaria, Pasi appealed to the hostage takers, saying Islam calls for ``mercy for the poor, the hungry and the sick,’’ and revealing that one hostage, Georgi Lazov, had diabetes, while the other, Ivaylo Kepov, had suffered a stroke.
Meanwhile, in another significant development, hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated in support of ousted President Saddam Hussein in the town of Baquba, witnesses said.
Masked gunmen led the protesters marching through the town chanting against Iraq’s new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. They shouted: "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, Saddam" and "No, no to Allawi" (the US-istalled Premier of interim Iraqi regime). (NNN)