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Two US soldiers among six killed Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8852869.htmhttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8852869.htm
Posted on Sun, Jun. 06, 2004
Two U.S. soldiers among six killed as violence persists
By Peter Y. Hong and Charles Duhigg
Los Angeles Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb, drive-by shooting and an ambush killed six Westerners, including two U.S. soldiers, throughout Iraq on Saturday, as violence persisted against the American-led coalition ruling Iraq in its final three weeks before handing power back to Iraqis.
For the second day in a row, U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. Two died and two others were wounded in the attack, which occurred in roughly the same spot where five soldiers were killed the previous day.
A bold ambush also killed three men on the highway leading to Baghdad's airport. Gunmen fired from fields on both sides of the highway on two sport-utility vehicles carrying the men. A U.S. Army captain at the scene said he believed the men were private security contractors but could not verify their nationalities.
From their vehicles, the contractors apparently shot back at their attackers until their fuel tanks exploded, leaving them to burn inside.
After the ambush
The charred state of their bodies made it unclear whether gunshots or the fire killed the men, the captain said. A trail of blood on the ground leading away from the shooting site suggested that at least one of the attackers was hit, he said.
The ambush came on a stretch of the highway next to a neighborhood housing many former members of Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency. The gunmen fired with little cover -- U.S. troops had cut down the date palms lining the highway to remove hiding places.
In the northern city of Mosul, another civilian security contractor was killed and three others were wounded in a drive-by shooting. The contractors were driving in a coalition convoy when they were attacked, a coalition spokesman said.
Amid the violence elsewhere, the state of on-and-off fighting between U.S. forces and the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr south of Baghdad remained uncertain. Followers of the cleric positioned in mosques in An-Najaf and Al-Kufah have fought U.S. soldiers, with 100 Iraqis and two soldiers killed last week alone, according to U.S military reports. On Friday, the city's governor declared that the American troops and Shiite militias would leave the city and that Iraqi police -- nearly all of whom had fled their posts at the start of fighting -- would resume control of security.
`Not a truce'
But Saturday, Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees the 1st Armored Division, said U.S. forces will continue to patrol areas in the cities except those around the mosques, and that Americans intend to keep bases in the region. They will assist Iraqi police if the governor requests help, he said. ``This is not a truce or a cease-fire,'' Hertling said.
Further confusing the situation, the city's police chief also said he did not plan to expel the Shiite fighters from the mosques. ``As long as they are not showing their weapons, I have no problem with them staying in the mosques,'' said police chief Said Gazahib Jazeeri.
It also remains unclear what the United States and the interim Iraqi government expects of Sadr. At the outset of fighting, the United States had said its goal was to kill or capture Sadr, who is wanted for his alleged role in the killing of a rival cleric.
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