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Special ops member killed Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/06/26/sprj.irq.main/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/06/26/sprj.irq.main/index.html
U.S. Special Ops member killed in Iraq, 8 wounded
UK: The 6 British personnel killed were Royal Military Police
(CNN) --Several incidents of hostile action were reported Thursday by U.S. military officials, the latest in a string of attacks on American forces since the end of major military action there was declared.
• A Special Operations forces member was killed and eight were injured Thursday in a "hostile fire" incident in southwest Baghdad on Thursday morning, according to U.S. Central Command. No details of that incident have been released, and names of the service members are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
• Pentagon officials confirmed that two U.S. soldiers were missing and that an extensive search was being made for them in the Baghdad area. The soldiers were traveling in a military Humvee near a checkpoint in the vicinity of Baghdad when their commanders lost contact with them late Wednesday, officials said.
U.S. officials said a search party went to the vehicle's last known location and encountered an Iraqi man acting strangely. He was being questioned. Nearby Iraqi citizens told U.S. military personnel they had seen another vehicle in the area depart along with the Humvee. Although details were sketchy, officials said they tracked the second vehicle to a building which they searched. A blood trail and civilian clothes were found but it was not clear whether they were related to the disappearance of the soldiers.
It was not clear whether the two had been traveling alone, but recent attacks on U.S. forces has led military officials to urge soldiers increase their security by traveling together in larger groups. A senior Pentagon official said there is no reason to believe the soldiers have fallen into opposition hands but there is concern about their fate.
• A U.S. military official said a coalition vehicle carrying a group including the director for rehabilitation of electricity in Iraq was struck in a rocket-propelled grenade attack Thursday, killing the driver and wounding at least two others. The attack took place on a road between Baghdad and the airport.
Capt. Sean McWilliams said two vehicles were damaged in the attack, although only an SUV was at the scene when reporters arrived. "This was an attack by a small group, designed to derail the process of moving to a democratic Iraq," he said. "But they will not succeed in this."
• A U.S. tractor-trailer was hit on the southern outskirts of Baghdad in another rocket-propelled grenade attack, a military spokesman said. Two soldiers were wounded.
• In a separate attack, a U.S. Marine died and two others were injured when their quick-reaction force assisted three Marines who were ambushed Wednesday in the central Iraqi town of Hillah, U.S. Central Command said. Hillah is about 70 miles south of Baghdad.
All six Marines were evacuated to a military surgical unit, according to Central Command, which provided no other details of the attack.
British probe under way
Officials investigating the deaths of six British military policemen in the village of Majar al-Kabir have determined that the six were not involved in violence that left four Iraqis dead, the general in charge of British troops in Iraq said Thursday. (Gallery: Scenes from the aftermath)
The six were the sole members of a Royal Military Police patrol traveling to towns from the British 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment's base in Amarah "to advise the local police force on policing matters and monitor their progress," said Maj. Gen. Peter Wall in Basra.
"You will understand that it would be wholly inappropriate for me to make any detailed comments about this incident while we are still trying to establish the facts," he said. "The fact that there were no British survivors makes this particularly difficult." (Britain to review Iraq troop presence)
Majar al-Kabir, outside Amarah in southern Iraq, was on the patrol's first stop Tuesday, Wall said.
The patrol's stop at the village police station apparently coincided with a clash between a platoon from the parachute regiment and Iraqis who seemed to believe the regiment had come to conduct weapons searches in violation of an agreement with local elders.
"The crowd violence appears to have stemmed from a misunderstanding," Wall said. "The townspeople expected searches for weapons to be conducted by our patrols. That was not our intent, and this had been explained to the town council at a formal meeting earlier in the week, when the strength of their resentment to weapons searches had become clear."
The intent, Wall said, was "a routine joint patrol in the town working with the local militia."
Wall said investigators were piecing together a narrative of what happened with help from local leaders who have given them what he called "excellent cooperation."
The soldiers were the first Britons to be killed in an Iraqi attack since the United States announced the end of major combat May 1. During that same period, 19 U.S. troops have been killed in attacks by Iraqis, according to the U.S. military.
CIA: Nuclear program parts unearthed
The CIA has what it says are critical parts of a key piece of Iraqi nuclear technology -- parts needed to develop a bomb program -- that were dug up in a back yard in Baghdad, CNN has learned.
The parts, with accompanying plans, were unearthed by Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi, who said he had hidden them under a rose bush in his garden 12 years ago under orders from Saddam Hussein's son Qusay and Saddam's then-son-in-law, Hussein Kamel.
The parts and documents Obeidi gave the CIA were shown to CNN at CIA headquarters in Virginia.
U.S. officials emphasized this find was not evidence that Iraq had a nuclear weapon -- but it was evidence that the Iraqis had concealed plans to reconstitute their nuclear program as soon as the world was no longer looking. (Full story, On the Scene: CNN's Mike Boettcher)
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday the parts that were found in Baghdad are not "evidence of a smoking gun" that proves Iraq had a current weapons of mass destruction program.
"The findings refer to material and documents of the pre-1991 Iraqi nuclear weapons program that have been well-known to the agency," said spokesman Mark Gwozdecky.
Other developments
• Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf -- who doggedly insisted Saddam Hussein was winning even as Baghdad fell -- said Thursday he had been questioned by U.S. forces and then released. In an excerpt from an interview that will air in full at 3 p.m. EDT Friday on the Arabic news channel Al-Arabiya, al-Sahaf described the Iraq war this way: "It was a very difficult time. Not just on one man, but on all." Asked what happened to him, Sahaf tells an interviewer, "Through a few friends, there was contact with the Americans and I ended up with them. Then there was a questioning session related to my job. After that, I was released." Al-Sahaf is not on the list of 55 top Iraqi leaders being sought by the United States.
• U.S. troops in Iraq have found 300 bags of a type of bean used to produce a deadly poison, U.S. officials said. The discovery was made in a former brake fluid plant. The bags of castor beans were marked "urea," which is a fertilizer compound. Castor beans are used in the production of ricin, a poison that can be used in biological weapons. U.S. officials said the discovery is under investigation.
• The deputy commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East called it "perplexing" that coalition troops have found no chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, but he predicted searchers would find them eventually. Lt. Gen. John Abizaid said he believed the 1,200-member, Pentagon-led Iraq Survey Group recently deployed to the region would have better luck finding the suspected stockpiles after examining documents and interviewing captured Iraqi officials. (Full story)
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief spokesman has admitted that a "mistake" was made in the production of a controversial dossier alleging Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. (Full story)
CNN Correspondents Jane Arraf, Mike Boettcher, David Ensor, Barbara Starr and Ben Wedeman and CNN Producers Maria Fleet and CNN Producer Caroline McDonald contributed to this report.
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