US military: 4 Marines killed in Anbar province in Iraq
Pastor Dale Morgan
US military: 4 Marines killed in Anbar province in Iraq*
By BRADLEY BROOKS,
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said Sunday a roadside bomb killed four
Marines in western Anbar province _ the deadliest attack in that area in
months.
The Marines were killed Friday, but no other details of the incident
were released.
Anbar was once a stronghold for insurgents battling against U.S. forces.
But in the past year the vast desert province has largely been calmed
with the rise of the Awakening Council movement _ Sunni fighters who now
turn their guns on al-Qaida instead of U.S. forces.
Thursday's attack was the most lethal in Anbar since Sept. 6, when four
Marines were killed in combat. The military did not release details of
those deaths.
On April 22, two Marines were killed in Anbar when a bomb-rigged truck
exploded at a checkpoint in the city of Ramadi.
Commanders say the security situation in the province has greatly
improved since fierce fighting in the city of Fallujah in 2004 came to
symbolize Sunni resistance to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraqi health officials said at least 10 people _ including
two children _ were killed in the past 24 hours in the Baghdad
neighborhood of Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people and a stronghold
for the Shiite Mahdi Army militia.
Officials at two hospitals in Sadr City spoke on condition of anonymity
for security reasons.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling militia members there for weeks
as part of an Iraqi government crackdown on the fighters.
On Saturday, the U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of
Sadr City, leveling a building 50 yards away from a hospital and
wounding nearly two dozen people.
AP Television News footage showed several ambulances destroyed and on
fire, with thick black smoke rising from them as firefighters worked to
put out the flames.
The strike, made from a ground launcher, took out a militant
"command-control center," the U.S. military said. Iraqi officials said
at least 23 people were wounded, though none of them were patients in
the hospital.
The clashes with the Mahdi Army have brought deep rifts among Iraq's
Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat.
Militia members have been blamed for firing hundreds of rockets or
mortars from Sadr City into the Green Zone, the U.S.-protected area
housing the American embassy and much of the Iraqi government.
In the past month, more than a dozen people _ including two American
civilians and soldiers _ have been killed inside the zone during the
attacks.