Iraqi resistance wipes out entire squad of Marines
The Washington Post reports: The
explosion enveloped the armored vehicle in flames, sending orange balls
of fire bubbling above the trees along the Euphrates River near the
Syrian border.
Marines in surrounding vehicles threw open their hatches and took off
running across the plowed fields, toward the already blackening metal
of the destroyed vehicle. Shouting, they pulled to safety those they
could, as the flames ignited the bullets, mortar rounds, flares and
grenades inside, rocketing them into the sky and across pastures.
Gunnery Sgt. Chuck Hurley emerged from the smoke and turmoil around the
vehicle, circling toward the spot where helicopters would later land to
pick up casualties. As he passed one group of Marines, he uttered just
one sentence: "That was the same squad."
Among the four Marines killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device
erupted under their amtrac on Wednesday were the last battle-ready
members of a squad that four days earlier had battled foreign fighters
holed up in a house in the town of Ubaydi. In that fight, two squad
members were killed and five wounded.
In 96 hours of fighting and ambushes in far western Iraq, the squad had ceased to be.
Every member of the squad--one of three that make up the 1st Platoon of
Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment--had been killed or wounded,
Marines here said. All told, the 1st Platoon, which Hurley commands,
had sustained 60 percent casualties, demolishing it as a fighting force.
"They used to call it Lucky Lima," said Maj. Steve Lawson, commander of the company. "That turned around and bit us."
Attacks kill 69 in Iraq, Iraqi General assassinated
In
other news from Iraq:A
car bomb exploded near a market in eastern Baghdad, killing at least
six people and wounding 13, said police 1st Lt. Mazin Saeed. The blast
also set some shops on fire in the New Baghdad area of the capital and
destroyed 10 cars parked nearby, he said.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, suspected insurgents shot and killed Brig. Gen.
Iyad Imad Mahdi as he drove to work at the Ministry of Defense. Col.
Fadhil Muhammed Mobarak was shot and killed as he traveled to the
Interior Ministry, where he led its police control room, police said.
Two car bombs also exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, 180 miles
north of Baghdad, police said. One blast occurred near a Shiite mosque,
killing two people and wounding two, said police Capt. Sarhad Talabani.
The other exploded at a site where explosives experts were dismantling
a roadside bomb that residents had found, said police Brig. Gen. Sarhad
Qader. Two of the experts were wounded by the blast, which also
destroyed nearby vehicles, Qader said.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomb
exploded in a small market near a police station, killing at least 33
people and injuring 92, police and hospital officials said. The
attacker swerved into a crowd of day laborers waiting to be picked up
for work at construction sites after heavy security prevented the
vehicle from reaching the station, police said.
About 90 minutes later, in Hawija, a town 150 miles north of Baghdad, a
man with hidden explosives slipped past security guards at a police and
army recruitment center and blew himself up outside the building where
applicants were lined up. At least 30 people were killed and 35
injured, police said.
In western Baghdad, gunmen clashed with a police patrol on a highway, killing one officer and wounding another.
Another bomb exploded at Iraq's largest fertilizer plant in the
southern city of Basra, killing one person and wounding 23, police and
employees said. The blast set fire to a gas pipeline and destroyed
about 60 percent of the plant.
Iraqi government in action
Meanwhile, the US military and the New Iraqi Parliament
tm are squabbling over
who gets a building in Baghdad.
National assembly members have long requested a meeting hall protected
by Iraqis, but the campaign picked up speed after a tearful legislator
appeared before the body last month to recount how U.S. soldiers had
manhandled him at a checkpoint leading into the Green Zone. Spurred on
by outraged legislators, the speaker of the assembly threatened to
suspend meetings until they found an alternative venue.
Around the same time, a committee led by Ahmad Chalabi, the
controversial politician who's now deputy prime minister, was searching
for a suitable site outside the Green Zone. They spotted the
rose-colored building next door. Chalabi and other committee members
took a tour of the grounds, praised the renovations and announced their
findings to their fellow lawmakers:
"All the building needs now is furniture, and we can install that within a week," a confident Chalabi told the assembly.
Legislators voted in favor of the move, infuriating U.S. and Iraqi
defense officials. They weren't about to let go of the building without
a fight, said one senior Iraqi defense official who was present when
Chalabi took his tour. He didn't want his name published for fear of
inflaming sensitivities surrounding the issue.
"If Chalabi comes back, we'll shoot him," the angry official said in jest.
