News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page
NewsMine war-on-terror iraq insurgency 2008 Viewing Item | US troops deaths at 7 months high in iraq { April 30 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD90C50BO1http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD90C50BO1
US troop deaths hit 7-month high in Iraq By SLOBODAN LEKIC April 30, 2008
BAGHDAD (AP) — The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September.
One soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The other died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms fire, the military said Wednesday. Both incidents occurred Tuesday in northwestern Baghdad.
A third soldier died in a roadside bombing Tuesday night in the east of the capital, the military said.
The statement did not give a more specific location. But the eastern half of Baghdad includes embattled Sadr City and other neighborhoods that have been the focus of intense combat between Shiite militants and U.S.-Iraqi troops for more than a month.
In all, at least 4,059 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The latest fighting erupted at the end of March after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a crackdown against Shiite militias in the southern port city of Basra. But it quickly spread to Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling slum with about 2.5 million people that is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The militiamen have used the district as a base to fire barrages of missiles and mortar rounds at the U.S.-protected Green Zone which houses much of the Iraqi government and Western diplomatic missions, including the U.S. and British embassies.
They also have fought running street battles in which hundreds have died. The U.S. military says those killed have been mainly gunmen. But police and medical authorities in Sadr City say innocent civilians have frequently gotten caught up in the fighting.
Such street battles — in tight confines and amid frightened civilians — are increasingly becoming a hallmark of the drive into Sadr City and recall the type of head-on clashes last seen in large numbers during last year's U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad and surrounding areas.
The Sadr City violence continued overnight with the destruction of a school in the district. AP Television News footage showed that parts of the two-floor Baghdad Girls' School had pancaked as the result of an explosion. Desks were hanging down from the slanting classrooms where the outer walls were blown out by the blast.
Local officials said the school was the target of an airstrike on Tuesday evening.
An official at the local hospital, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to release the information, said two people were killed and 16 wounded overnight in Sadr City. He said this brought the death toll in the district since Tuesday to 31, with 107 wounded.
The U.S. military had no comment about the school but said an Abrams tank fired at gunmen shooting at U.S. troops in Sadr City, killing all three. In another part of Sadr City, an unmanned drone fired a missile at a group of men planting a roadside bomb and killed one, the military said.
In another development, the office of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, said he received a telephone call from President Bush on Tuesday afternoon.
The SIIC is one of the main members of al-Maliki's U.S.-supported government and a rival of al-Sadr's movement.
An SIIC statement said that two exchanged views about the current situation in Iraq. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Associated Press writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.
Hosted by Google Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
| Files Listed: 15 |
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material
available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political,
human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for research and educational purposes. For more information,
go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purpose of your own that go beyond
'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|