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Roadside bomb kills 14 US marines in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-04 08:33
Marines have been fighting for months in a string of towns along the
Euphrates to try to seal a major infiltration route for foreign fighters
slipping into Iraq from Syria. Late Wednesday, insurgents fired two mortars at
Marine positions near Haditha. Moments later, U.S. warplanes could be heard
mounting counterattacks, residents said.
The Marines stepped up operations in May in hopes of pacifying the area so
Iraqi military and civilian forces could assume effective control. However,
government authority in the heavily Sunni Arab region is tenuous.
U.S. officials have long complained that American forces seize Sunni areas
only to have Iraqi authorities lose them again to the insurgents once American
troops leave. Despite those complaints, the Bush administration is talking about
handing more security responsibility to the Iraqis and drawing down forces next
year.
At least 1,821 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war
began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
On Wednesday, the Web site of the Ansar al-Sunnah Army posted photographs
from Monday's attack on the Marine sniper team. One picture shows a bloody,
battered body wearing Marine camouflage trousers. Another shows two hooded
gunmen standing in front of several rifles, apparently taken from dead Marines.
In a statement accompanying the photos, Ansar al-Sunnah said the insurgents
lured the Marines out of their base and ambushed them.
"The intention was to capture them alive, but they opened fire on the
mujahedeen," the statement said. "The heroes slaughtered those who were still
alive ... except for one, who begged the mujahedeen for his life. They captured
him and he is in our hands."
At the Pentagon, Ham said no Marines were missing and believed captured.
In Brook Park, the Cleveland suburb where the battalion was based, businesses
tied red, white and blue ribbons on their doors, and some had American flags
hanging in the windows. A bouquet of red roses was placed at the gate of the
Marine headquarters, an old brick schoolhouse.
Among the six killed Monday was Cpl. Jeffrey A. Boskovitch, 25, of North
Royalton, Ohio, an aspiring police officer who planned to set a wedding date
with his girlfriend when he returned home this fall.
A New York City police officer serving in the Army Reserve was shot and
killed Tuesday by a sniper while guarding prisoners at the Camp Victory military
base, outside Baghdad, city officials said Wednesday. Staff Sgt. James
McNaughton, 27, was the first member of the police force to be killed in action
in Iraq.
In Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, an American freelance writer was
found dead late Tuesday 錕斤拷 the first U.S. journalist slain in Iraq since the
U.S.-led invasion. Steven Vincent of New York was shot multiple times hours
after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint, police said.
The translator, Nour Weidi, was seriously wounded. Five gunmen in a police
car abducted them as they left a currency exchange shop Tuesday evening, police
Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said.
Vincent had been in Basra for several months working on a book about the
city's history. In an opinion column published July 31 in The New York Times, he
wrote that Basra's police force had been heavily infiltrated by members of
Shiite political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr.
He quoted an unidentified Iraqi police lieutenant as saying that some police
were behind many of the assassinations of former Baath Party members that have
taken place in Basra. He also criticized British forces for failing to curb the
infiltration.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 46
journalists and 20 media support workers have been killed covering the war in
Iraq since March 2003. Insurgent actions are responsible for the bulk of the
deaths.
The Vienna, Austria-based media watchdog International Press Institute
condemned Vincent's killing and urged Iraqi authorities to conduct a speedy and
thorough investigation.
The death underscored how "Iraq continues to be the most dangerous country in
the world in which to work as a journalist," the group said.
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