Death Toll 07/13 - 07/15/03

[DoYouEverWonder]

U.S. Kills Four in New Iraq Operation


July 13, 2003, 7:32 AM EDT

BALAD, Iraq -- American forces killed four suspected pro-Saddam insurgents and arrested more than 50 people as they launched a fourth major offensive in central Iraq, an operation meant to blunt expected attacks on U.S. soldiers, military officials said.

The officials say the anti-U.S. attacks will be timed with upcoming holidays that mark major events in the history of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party,

The Army's 4th Infantry Division launched operation "Ivy Serpent" Saturday night with a series of raids on suspected pro-Saddam holdouts, sweeping illegal weapons markets in the Baqouba and Balad on the Tigris River north of the capital and setting up checkpoints.

<snip>

He said two homes used to produce anti-U.S. propaganda were raided and that American forces came under rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire in a sweep through seven locations in Diala Province, northeast of Baghdad.

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Russia Said to Kill Chechen Warlord


July 13, 2003, 4:04 AM EDT

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia -- Rebels ambushed a Russian military vehicle in southern Chechnya, killing nine soldiers and wounding five, a Chechen administration official said Sunday.

Sporadic rebel attacks elsewhere Saturday left 11 servicemen dead while the Russian military claimed to have killed a leading Chechen warlord.

<snip>

Rebels then ambushed the vehicle, launching grenades and firing automatic weapons at the truck, the official said. The soldiers had been returning to base after a reconnaissance mission in the mountains of southern Chechnya, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Earlier Saturday, Russian troops killed Aslan Gasayev and three of his bodyguards during an operation near the village of Alkhan-Kala, military spokesman Ilya Shabalkin said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency and NTV television.



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Clashes in West Sudan Kill 30 Rebels


July 12, 2003, 11:02 PM EDT

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- About 30 rebels and an undisclosed number of government troops were killed during fighting in western Sudan near the border with Chad, a senior government official was quoted as saying Saturday.

Sudanese officials said government troops on Friday repulsed an attack by forces from the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, a little-known group operating in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The governor of North Darfur state, Osman Mohamed Yusuf Kibir, also rejected rebel claims the group overran the town of Tinah, about 560 miles west of Sudan's capital, Khartoum.

Kibir said Sudanese soldiers killed 30 rebels and arrested 12 others, according to a report carried by Sudan's official news agency.


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Blast near Iraqi police station


Sunday, 13 July, 2003

At least one person has been killed and another wounded in a blast outside a police station in a suburb of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Witnesses said a headless body was found at the scene after the blast in the western suburb of Maysaloun on Sunday.

The police station is sometimes visited by US soldiers.

<Snip>

However, al-Arabiya television aired a taped message on Sunday which claimed that the attacks had been co-ordinated by the al-Qaeda network and not the former regime.




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One Dies in Palestinian Knife Attack in Israel


Mon July 14, 2003 10:10 PM ET

TEL AVIV (Reuters) -A man stabbed to death one person and wounded two others in Tel Aviv early on Tuesday in what police called the first Palestinian attack in an Israeli city since Palestinian militants declared a truce on June 29.

The motives of the attack were not immediately clear and police did not say whether the man was connected to any militant group. But the attack could threaten the fragile three-month truce which is vital to U.S.-led peace efforts.

"We've got one civilian who was killed and another that was wounded," local police commander Yossi Sedbon told reporters on the scene in Tel Aviv, Israel's main commercial city. "The Palestinian was shot in his legs and is now under medical care."


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U.S. Loses 32nd Soldier in Iraq, Bush Backs CIA


Mon July 14, 2003 07:13 PM ET

<snip>

TROOPS UNDER FIRE

In the latest attack on U.S. troops, assailants fired on a convoy in the central al-Mansour area of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding 10 others, the military said.

Witnesses said one vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and another by machine-gun fire. Bloodstains on an armored Humvee vehicle and the crumpled cab of an army truck bore testament to the attack.

Dozens of U.S. troops searched the area as helicopters hovered above. Soldiers searching an abandoned house in the area found a light machine gun probably used in the attack.


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Two Liberian Cabinet Ministers Killed


Wednesday July 16, 2003 12:59 AM

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - Two Liberian deputy Cabinet ministers who were arrested last month when a coup plot was announced have been killed, relatives of the men said Tuesday.

The ministers were arrested June 5 about the time President Charles Taylor announced he had uncovered the plot.

Harrison Karnwea, a cousin of Yormie's, said Taylor informed the relatives Sunday that the men died in circumstances that needed to be investigated. He said Taylor did not elaborate.

<snip>

``In Liberia our security (forces) do not shoot you ... they pluck (out) your eyes, they cut off your ears and they cut out your tongue,'' said Vaye's widow, Suzana, who wept as she met with reporters.

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Suspected Taliban Kill 5 Afghan Policemen


July 15, 2003, 7:14 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban fighters attacked a police headquarters in southern Afghanistan, killing the police chief and four other officers, an official said Tuesday.

Two other policemen were wounded in the attack Monday in Ghorak district, 72 miles northwest of Kandahar, said Mohammed Salim, deputy police chief in Kandahar.

About 12 suspected Taliban drove up to the district police headquarters in two cars and a pickup truck. They stormed the station killing police chief Sakza Mama and his men.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Salim blamed the Taliban, who are usually the first ones to be accused of any attack on government offices in Afghanistan.

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Ambushed U.S. soldiers kill five Iraqis - army

15 Jul 2003 12:23:25 GMT

HABBANIAH, Iraq, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed five Iraqis and captured another on Tuesday after they came under ambush while driving out of an ammunition depot west of Baghdad, the commander of the unit said.

The clash, between the cities of Ramadi and Habbaniyah about 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, took place in particularly hostile territory for U.S. troops. The military has blamed a spate of attacks in the predominantly Sunni Muslim area on die- hard loyalists of ousted President Saddam Hussein.

"Our unit was making its way out of the ammunitions dump when we were ambushed. Our Bradleys (fighting vehicles) fought back and we killed five attackers," Captain Mark Miller, the commander of the company involved, told Reuters.

There were no U.S. casualties.

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An injured Iraqi man looks at a damaged car following a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack in Baghdad. A US soldier was killed in the attack -- the 32nd to be killed by hostile fire in Iraq, since May 1.(AFP/Marwan Naamani)




Soldier T.J. Kewatt, front left, serves as one of the pall bearers as the casket of his friend and cousin, Pfc. Edward James Herrgott, leaves St. John's Lutheran Church following funeral services Tuesday, July 15, 2003, in Shakopee, Minn. Herrgott, 20, was the first Minnesotan killed in the war in Iraq, shot by a sniper while guarding the National Museum in Baghdad, July 3. Kewatt, from Shakopee, was also serving with the Army in Iraq when his cousin was killed and accompanied Herrgott's body home. (APPhoto/Jim Mone)





Soldiers carry the bodies of four rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, and the National Liberation Army, ELN, at an army base in Bello, just north of Medellin, 185 miles northeast of Bogota, Monday, July 14, 2003. The rebels were killed during clashes with the troops northeast of Medellin. (AP Photo/Luis Benavides)

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. AM Kick

Damn, 3 more American soldiers to add to the list since just last night. This is beyond ridiculous.

[newyawker99]

2. kick

:kick:

[mopaul]

3. kick.....glad someone's keeping tab

[July]

4. I always wonder about the "suspected pro-Saddam insurgents"

Do we know these are Saddam supporters? Or is this phrase just an administration assertion to keep people from thinking they're ordinary Iraqis who are pissed about our presence in Iraq? Is this based on any evidence? I realize that there very well may be some pro-Saddam types in Iraq, but "suspected" sounds to me like "we have no idea who they are, but it works for us to call them members of Saddam's team." The language they use is usually a clue for all but the clueless -- what do you think?