|
US death toll over 1000 { July 9 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.fox11az.com/news/other/stories/KMSB-20040709-cnnbp-deaths.2dfd44f91.htmlhttp://www.fox11az.com/news/other/stories/KMSB-20040709-cnnbp-deaths.2dfd44f91.html
Death toll for U.S.-led coalition in Iraq tops 1,000
09:34 AM MST on Friday, July 9, 2004
CNN Report
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In a grim milestone, the number of deaths in the American-led coalition in Iraq surpassed 1,000 this week.
The latest reported deaths include a U.S. soldier who died from wounds in fighting Thursday in Baghdad, an American soldier killed in a Samarra attack Wednesday and another who died in a nonbattle-related incident Thursday.
The deaths bring multinational fatalities -- both in combat and "nonhostile" situations -- to 1,002 since the start of the war in March 2003. U.S. military deaths now total 881.
There are no reliable figures for the Iraqi deaths in the war.
In other violence Thursday, a mortar attack killed five U.S. troops and an Iraqi National Guard member in the north-central Iraqi city of Samarra, according to an American military spokesman.
Twenty soldiers and three Iraqis were wounded.
The strike collapsed the National Guard headquarters, which soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division frequently use. The 1st Infantry Division and Iraqi security services patrol the area.
Elsewhere Thursday, textile factory owner Ali Abass Hassen was killed in a Baghdad car bombing, possibly because of his past affiliation with the former ruling Baath Party, police said.
An Iraqi police officer said a car bomb planted in Hassen's car exploded when he started it up in the Al-Doura district south of Baghdad.
Bulgarians, Filipino captured
Meanwhile, Bulgaria and the Philippines on Friday worked to free citizens kidnapped in Iraq by suspected insurgents.
The two abducted Bulgarians and Filipino are truck drivers. Militants in recent months have abducted truckers because they were transporting goods to U.S.-led forces.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry identified the hostages as Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov.
In a video aired Thursday by the Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera, an Iraqi insurgent group threatened to behead two Bulgarian hostages within 24 hours if the United States does not release all prisoners in Iraq.
Video showed the two Bulgarians sitting with their hands tied while three armed men in masks stood behind them.
The insurgents, calling themselves the Unification and Holy War group, read a statement telling the Bulgarian government its alliances with the United States has jeopardized the safety of its citizens in Iraq.
The Philippine government said the Filipino driver, identified as Angelo dela Cruz, was based out of Qatar and was abducted while driving through the Iraqi capital.
Al-Jazeera reported the abduction Wednesday, saying an Islamic militant group claimed responsibility and threatened to kill the man unless the Philippines withdraws its troops from Iraq.
The Philippines initially contributed about 100 troops to the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. There are now a little more than 50 Filipino troops in Iraq.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the country's Department of Labor and Employment to stop the processing of workers headed to Iraq. The government said there are "no less than 1,000 Filipino workers there hired directly by Iraqi companies or other foreign companies."
The Filipino leader said she has sent an envoy to spearhead efforts to release the hostage.
"The Iraq team is doing all that is humanly possible to get the victim home safely," she said.
Marine headed to Germany for debriefing
A day after turning up at the American Embassy in Lebanon, Marine Cpl. Wassef Hassoun is en route Friday to the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany, in the hands of fellow Marines for the first time since his disappearance last month.
The 24-year-old translator disappeared June 19 and resurfaced this week in Lebanon. Hassoun was listed as "captured" in Iraq after being seen on video blindfolded with a sword over his head.
Hassoun is headed to Ramstein, where he will undergo a medical examination at nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Marine spokesman Maj. Nat Fahy said.
Pentagon officials said Hassoun came to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on Thursday with members of his family. He apparently arrived the day before at the home of relatives in his native city of Tripoli, Lebanon, a source close to the family said.
It's unknown how Hassoun got to his family's home in Tripoli, some 500 miles (805 kilometers) away from where he was last seen at his unit's base in Fallujah, Iraq.
Al-Jazeera aired a video June 27 showing Hassoun blindfolded with a sword suspended over his head. A narrator on the tape said the captive would be killed if the United States did not free jailed Iraqis. There were conflicting reports on Hassoun's fate since then, including Islamic Web sites claiming he had been beheaded.
This article courtesy of CNN.
|
|
