Thursday, September 18, 2003 Two soldiers
wounded in convoy attack west of Baghdad By The Associated Press KHALDIYAH, Iraq - U.S. troops
were ambushed on the main road of this central
Iraqi town Thursday, hit by a remote-controlled
roadside bomb and then coming under heavy gunfire
that destroyed at least two trucks. An Associated
Press reporter who arrived on the scene saw five
U.S. tanks, two Bradley fighting vehicles and 40
troops surrounding a neighborhood from which gunmen
opened fire after the bomb exploded. Helicopters
hovered above. Initially as U.S. troops were taking fire from
unknown positions, soldiers were firing with no
obvious targets, in an apparent effort to protect
themselves until reinforcements arrived, a witness
said. The U.S. military in Baghdad said two
American soldiers were wounded. Al-Arabiya
television reported eight Americans were
killed and one wounded. An AP driver said a
three-year-old Iraqi boy who had been shot in the
chest. His condition was not known. The AP reporter was fired on by one of the tanks
with three rounds from its 50-caliber machine gun.
An AP photographer said his car was shot up by
American fire, the windshield blown out and all the
tires flattened. The photographer and his driver
were not injured. Fifteen kilometers (nine miles)
west a second roadside bomb hit a military convoy
of three Humvees and a truck shortly after the
attack in Khaldiyah. One humvee that served as a
troop carrier was engulfed in flames. It was not
clear if the military casualty report included the
second incident. American forces in the
region are extremely jumpy, caught in what
increasingly is a classic guerrilla war.
Attackers and civilians look the same and when
soldiers come under fire, as they did in
Khaldiyah, they respond with massive firepower.
That is what apparently caused the child, the AP
reporter and AP photographer to be shot at. A
civilian tanker truck also was hit by American
guns and was burning as night fell. As it grew
dark, the Americans pulled out, removing the
burned truck with a crane. About 100 Iraqis began dancing in the streets
and carried a large poster of ousted dictator
Saddam Hussein dressed in fatigues. There
was celebratory gunfire and the people
chanted:"With our blood, with our souls we
sacrifice ourselves for you, Saddam." Hours after
incident soldiers pointed tank cannons at reporters
every time they tried to approach to find out what
had happen. As it grew dark, the Americans pulled
out, removing the burned truck with a crane. About
100 Iraqis began dancing in the streets and carried
a large photo of Saddam dressed in fatigues. There
was celebratory gunfire and the people chanted:
"With our blood, with our souls we sacrifice
ourselves for you, Saddam." Khaldiyah is a town in the so-called "Sunni
Triangle" in central Iraq, the heartland of support
for ousted Iraqi leader Saddam and the focus of an
anti-American insurgency. Khaldiyah's police chief
was killed in an ambush on Monday as he was
returning to his home in Fallujah. The brazen
shooting of Col. Khedeir Mekhalef Ali was
the latest attack targeting Iraqis who work with
coalition forces. About 30 kilometers (18 miles) to
the east in Fallujah, neighbors said a 14-year-old
boy was killed late Wednesday and six people were
wounded in a shooting incident that started after
people at a wedding fired guns into the air to
celebrate and a passing U.S. military patrol opened
fire believing it was under attack. The neighbors who witnesses the incident said
the boy and the wounded were hit by American fire
from a passing convoy of Humvees. In Baghdad,
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the coalition
military commander in Iraq, said he could not
confirm that a boy was killed. He said the incident
was under investigation. Adel Hmood, a
neighbor, told The Associated Press that the
Americans opened fire in a circle around
themselves. He said the dead boy was Sufyan
Daoud al-Kubaisi who was on his way to buy
cigarettes when he was killed. Bullet holes in homes and buildings in the area
suggested there was heavy firing by the Americans
during the incident which occurred about two blocks
off the main street in Fallujah, a key city for the
opposition to the U.S. occupation. A policeman in
the city who spoke on condition of anonymity said
he had heard identical reports. There were no U.S.
forces to be found in the city Thursday. Last week American soldiers from the 82 Airborne
Division mistakenly opened fire on Iraqi police
cars chasing highway bandits just outside Fallujah,
killing eight Iraqi officers. The military has
apologized for the friendly fire incident and
opened an investigation into what was the worst
such incident since U.S. President George W. Bush
declared major fighting over on May 1. North of Baghdad, there was an explosion along a
pipeline carrying crude oil from the oil fields
near Kirkuk to Iraq's largest refinery at Beiji,
the U.S. military said in Tikrit. Witnesses said
the explosion occurred just north of Beiji, about
200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Baghdad. The
cause of the blast could not be immediately
determined and the extent of damage was unclear.
The military said the cause of the fire was not yet
known because it was raging so fiercely
investigators could not get close. Maj. Josslyn
Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry
Division based in Tikrit, 200 kilometers (120
miles) north of Baghdad, said valves on the 20-inch
(50.80-centimeter) pipeline were being closed to
shut off fuel to the fire. Initial reports said the fire was on the main
export pipeline to Turkey, but the military said it
broke out on a feeder line from the Kirkuk fields,
Iraq's second biggest. "The fire won't affect oil
production or the timetable for resuming exports,"
Aberle said. The line to the Turkish Mediterranean
port of Ceyhan has been hit by a string of sabotage
attacks just days after it was reopened. L. Paul
Bremer, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, said the
line's closure was costing the country US$7 million
each day. The military says the line should be back
in operation in about a month. In Baghdad, police backed by U.S. soldiers and
helicopters sealed a large part of the center of
the city Thursday in a raid to capture car thieves.
Two men were arrested at an auto repair shop on
suspicion of having stolen a police vehicle.
Despite the ongoing tension, Sanchez, the U.S.
commander, said coalition authorities were
considering relaxing the 11 p.m. to 4:30 a.m.
curfew in Baghdad and were also looking into the
possibility of withdrawing U.S. troops from cities
where local Iraqis were capable of maintaining
security. Sanchez also said coalition authorities
were aiming to reopen the 14th of July Bridge, a
major Baghdad artery, around the middle of next
month. Such moves would ease the burden on ordinary
Iraqis at a time when the coalition leadership is
concerned about rising public resentment to the
occupation. It would also lower the U.S. military
profile in population centers and reduce their
vulnerability to guerrilla attacks. Sanchez also
said no Americans or Britons were currently being
held by coalition forces in Iraq. On Tuesday, Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski,
who is in charge of coalition detention centers in
Iraq, said six people claiming to be Americans and
two who said they were British are among those held
for suspicion of involvement in attacks against
coalition forces. She said the claims had not been
confirmed and "the details become sketchy and their
story changes." Sanchez said at least one American
was arrested around the end of major combat
operations May 1 but he was released after an
investigation determined he was not involved in
illegal activities. Sanchez gave no further
details. American officials have spoken of foreign
involvement in some of the attacks against U.S. and
other coalition forces but had not mentioned any
Westerners. |