General: 3 to 6 GIs Dying in Iraq a Week WHEN WILL THIS STOP AND I MEAN STOP NOW!!!

From:

General: 3 to 6 GIs Dying in Iraq a Week WHEN WILL THIS STOP AND I MEAN
STOP NOW!!!

General: 3 to 6 GIs Dying in Iraq a Week
By TINI TRAN Associated Press Writer
published 11:34 AM - OCTOBER 02, 2003 Eastern Time

HEADLINES
Headlines
No evidence of WMD expected at briefings
Draft U.N. resolution urges Iraqi self-rule, sets no date
12 dead in Pakistan al Qaeda hunt
Three U.S. soldiers killed in separate attacks
And that's how the cookie crumbles

Headlines
General: 3 to 6 GIs Dying in Iraq a Week
Coetzee Wins 2003 Nobel Literature Award
Dow Drops 10, Nasdaq Falls 6
Two Peacekeepers Killed in Afghanistan
Limbaugh Leaves ESPN Over McNabb Remarks
Harassment Allegations Dog Schwarzenegger
Pakistani Army Kills 12 in al-Qaida Sweep
Israel Plans More West Bank Settlements
Charges Filed in Alleged Football Hazing
Inspector Briefing Congress on Iraq Arms

PHOTO
enlarge & detail
Nearly six months after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. troops are suffering an
average of three to six deaths and 40 wounded every week, the commander of
American forces in Iraq said Thursday.
"The enemy has evolved _ a little bit more lethal, a little more complex,
a little more sophisticated, and in some cases, a little bit more tenacious,"
said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. "The evolution is about what we expected to see
over time."
American forces are being attacked 15-20 times a day, counting roadside
bombs, mostly in Baghdad and the surrounding Sunni stronghold to the west and
north of the capital, Sanchez said.
Since May 1, when the U.S. declared the end of major combat, an estimated
90 soldiers have died in combat, according to an Associated Press tally. A total
of 314 American service members have died since the war started March 20,
according to the U.S. Defense Department.
Soldiers whose wounds are not severe are treated in field hospitals in
Iraq. Those with more serious wounds are sent to the American military hospital
in Landstuhl, Germany, after their conditions are stabilized. Some of the most
seriously wounded are being sent to the United States. The military would not
give a breakdown.
Landstuhl Regional Medical Center has been getting an average of 40 to 44
patients a day from Iraq, about 10 to 12 percent of whom are classified as
"battle injuries," said spokeswoman Marie Shaw.
Since the start of the conflict, the hospital has seen 6,684 patients _
5,377 coming after May 1, Shaw said.
"What we don't see a lot of, though we see some, is gunshot wounds," Shaw
said. "We see a lot of shrapnel wounds, some amputations, some burns _ mostly
from individual explosive devices."
Sanchez blamed the changing nature of the conflict on an influx of
militants and other terrorist elements coming in from Syria and northern Iran to
join the core resistance of Saddam loyalists.
"We believe there is, in fact, a foreign fighter element. There is a
terrorist element focused on the coalition and international community in
general and the Iraqi people to try to disrupt the progress being made," he
said.
In the latest violence, U.S. soldiers came under fire Thursday near the
Fallujah mayor's office and killed one of their attackers, an American officer
said, while a witness said a U.S. convoy was attacked southeast of the volatile
city.
Those incidents came a day after three American soldiers were killed in
separate attacks as the U.S.-led coalition faced an increasingly sophisticated
resistance movement.
None of the Americans was hurt in the attack by three gunmen in Fallujah,
a major city 30 miles west of Baghdad in the so-called "Sunni Triangle," but two
girls were injured in the crossfire, Lt. Col. Brian Drinkwine said.
A check by The Associated Press at the town's two hospitals showed one
dead and four wounded _ a policeman, a 17-year-old boy who underwent surgery for
an abdominal wound, and a mother and her 4-year-old daughter. All were in stable
condition.
Drinkwine said the attack was aimed at the city building.
"While we were conducting a meeting in the city council building (mayor's
office), we were fired upon. We returned fire and killed one enemy," Drinkwine
said.
Shortly before the attack, a fuel tanker in a U.S. convoy near Amiriyah,
southeast of Fallujah, was hit by a mine or roadside bomb, according to Mohammed
Hamid, who lives nearby. He said a soldier in the passenger seat of the cab
pulling the tanker was killed and the driver was wounded. The military had no
information on that attack.
Twenty miles to the east in Khaldiyah, a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S.
convoy was passing, but did not damage the American vehicles.
Witness accounts of the Fallujah attack were at odds with those of the
military, with some claiming the gunmen fired from a passing car on a U.S. foot
patrol. Others said a single gunman attacked from the street.
Ali Jassim, commander of the Fallujah Protection Force, also said the dead
man was not an attacker but an innocent bystander. He said policeman Mohammed
Muafaq, 27, was shot in the hip.
Walid al-Jumaly, a tire shop owner, said more than 10 soldiers were
walking across the main street in front of the mayor's office and an adjacent
U.S. Army post when a man stepped from a side street, shouted "God is great!"
and started firing with an assault rifle.
He said the Americans used tear gas and returned fire.
Afterward, residents of the Euphrates River city said they were happy the
soldiers came under attack, calling the assailant a freedom fighter.
Assou Nadim Hamid, a policeman himself and brother of one of eight
Fallujah police mistakenly killed by U.S. troops Sept. 12, voiced anger at the
Americans.
"Whenever they come inside Fallujah, they will be attacked. Saddam Hussein
is gone. But now we have the same kind of regime," he said.
A bomb was found at the mayor's office last week and defused. U.S. troops
routinely are in the office to coordinate reconstruction projects in the region.
Fallujah, a wedge of land west and north of Baghdad, has been the scene of
repeated attacks by resistance fighters opposed to the American occupation.
On Wednesday, a soldier from the 1st Armored Division was shot and killed
while on patrol in the al-Mansour district of western Baghdad, the U.S. command
said. A female soldier from the 4th Infantry Division also died Wednesday when a
roadside bomb exploded about 300 yards from the main U.S. base in Tikrit,
Saddam's hometown. Two other soldiers were wounded in the blast. U.S. troops in
Tikrit fired mortars overnight into empty fields near the base in a show of
force.
Another soldier from the 4th Infantry Division died following a
rocket-propelled grenade attack on a convoy Wednesday near Samara, about 60
miles north of the Iraqi capital, according to the military.
In Tikrit, the military said the Baath Party official was arrested
overnight near Baqouba. His name was not released, but the military said he was
believed to have been helping Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a longtime Saddam
confidant and one of the most senior members of the former regime still at
large.
Al-Douri, Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman, is No. 6
on the most-wanted list of 55 Iraqis. His daughter was married to Saddam's son,
Odai, who was killed with his brother, Qusai, in a U.S.-led attack in July.
Meanwhile, troops of the 4th Infantry Division killed one Iraqi and
wounded another after assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms
fire at a U.S. patrol near Balad, division spokeswoman Maj. Josslyn Aberle said.
In New York, U.S. diplomats circulated a new draft U.N. Security Council
resolution calling for a strengthened U.N. role in rebuilding Iraq. The draft
provided no timetable for a handover of authority to Iraqis, according to a copy
of the document obtained by AP.

------------------------------------
MilitaryMomsOnline/VeteransRights/AmericanAngelArt
Gunny Diane M. Weller
CEO
dweller@neo.rr.com
13360 N. Elyria Rd., Lot 625
P.O. Box 613
West Salem, OHIO USA 44287-0613
tel: 419-853-1372
fax: 1-240-376-0333
http://militarymomsonline.tripod.com/organization/
------------------------------------