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3 us troops die guarding convoy Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V2634.AP-Iraq.htmlhttp://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V2634.AP-Iraq.html
3 U.S. Troops Die Guarding Convoy in Iraq
By MATT MOORE
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)--Three American soldiers were killed Thursday when their convoy was hit by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in northern Iraq, a military spokeswoman said.
The killings were further signs that an insurgency against American troops is not losing strength as Washington hoped after the deaths Tuesday of Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai.
V Corps spokeswoman Spc. Nicole Thompson said the soldiers, members of the 101st Airborne Division, were traveling in a convoy toward Qayyarah, 186 miles north of the capital, Baghdad, when they were at attacked. No soldiers were reported wounded and it wasn't known if any assailants were killed or wounded.
It was the second attack in two days that killed members of the division, which led the intense but sporadic fiery assault in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that killed Odai and Qusai Hussein.
On Wednesday, two American soldiers were killed in separate attacks on their convoys, including one near Mosul.
The latest deaths brought to 158 the number of U.S. servicemen killed in action since the war began March 20, surpassing by 11 the death toll in the 1991 Gulf War.
Odai and Qusai were Nos. 2 and 3 on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted from the toppled Saddam regime. Guerrilla holdouts loyal to the regime have attacked U.S. forces at a rate of about 12 times daily in an effort to wear down the Americans and drive them from the country.
To prove to Iraqis the brothers are dead, Defense Secretary H. Donald Rumsfeld said the United States would release photographs of their bodies, but didn't say when. The photos are likely to be gruesome because the fighting to capture the house was intense.
In Sadr City, a poor suburb of Baghdad formerly called Saddam City, some residents wanted to be sure the brothers were dead.
``We heard about Odai and Qusai being killed and, frankly, we are happy,'' Fadil Abbas told Associated Press Television News. ``The question is, what's the proof of them being killed. We heard about it, but we haven't seen any proof so far.''
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition troops in Iraq, said the brothers, along with two other Iraqis believed to be a bodyguard and Qusai's teenage son Mustafa barricaded themselves on the second floor of a three-story home in Mosul. He said they were killed after anti-tank rockets were fired from Humvees during the sporadic four-hour siege.
In a telephone interview with The Associated Press from his home in London, Izzedin Kamel Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of the two brothers, said Odai and Qusai were likely relaxing in the Mosul home when the American soldiers approached it.
``They went to this man in particular because he was a member of the family and they thought they could stay there for a while, be safe and then go somewhere else,'' he said.
In Baghdad Thursday, two Iraqi men were killed after the car they were in approached a U.S. checkpoint near the downtown al-Geilani mosque and American troops opened fore. Eyewitnesses told the AP that the two men were killed after the car caught fire.
``We told the driver not to go ahead because there was an American checkpoint,'' said Mahmoud Haider, 50, who witnessed the shooting. ``He refused.''
Military spokesman Spc. Giovanni Lorente had no information about the shooting.
Also Thursday, a leading member of Iraq's interim Governing Council said Iraq should adopt a constitution and hold free elections within 1 1/2 years at most.
Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the aim of the newly appointed council was to ``shorten as much as possible the transition period'' to self-rule.
``The only way to do that is to have a constitution and free elections,'' Pachachi said. He planned to hold talks with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw later Thursday.
On Wednesday, a tape purportedly made by Saddam called on Iraqis to press their uprising against the U.S.-led occupation. The tape reportedly was made Sunday, two days before the killing of Saddam's eldest sons.
The CIA was analyzing the audio message broadcast by Arab TV but has reached no conclusion about its authenticity, said a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority announced early this week the closure of a Baghdad newspaper and arrest of its office manager, who wasn't identified.
The statement said Al-Mustaqila, which means ``The Independent'' in Arabic, published an article July 13 calling for ``death to all spies and those who cooperate with the U.S.'' It said killing them was a religious duty.
AP-NY-07-24-03 0541EDT
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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