3 More GIs Killed in Iraq This Week
Pastor Dale Morgan
Dec 15, 10:24 PM EST
*
3 More GIs Killed in Iraq This Week*
By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Three more U.S. troops died in fighting this week,
the military said Friday, raising to 54 the number of Americans killed
in Iraq in December - nearly half of them in Anbar.
The month is shaping up to be one of the deadliest for Americans since
the war started, especially for those trying to tame the Sunni-led
insurgency in the volatile province west of Baghdad.
At least 25 of the U.S. troops killed this month - most Marines - died
in the vast stretch of desert that extends from the capital to the
borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Three U.S. aircraft also
went down in a span of two weeks, starting with the crash of a fighter
jet on Nov. 27.
The large number of casualties reflects the strength of Sunni
insurgents, including al-Qaida in Iraq, in the region, even as violence
in Baghdad shifts to a fight between Sunni and Shiite extremists.
It also comes despite a decision by some U.S. commanders in the area to
pull troops out of combat missions and partner them with Iraqi army
units as advisers and mentors.
With President Bush weighing strategy changes in the war, the U.S.
Army's chief of staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, said Thursday that Gen.
George Casey, the top commander in Iraq, is considering shifting many
troops from combat missions to training Iraqi units, among other options.
Two Marines died Thursday in fighting in Anbar province, the military
said. In Ninevah province to the northwest, a soldier assigned to the
4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, was killed Tuesday, the
military said.
At least 2,942 members of the U.S. military have died since the U.S.-led
invasion in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, issued his first public
comment on a bipartisan U.S. report that said American policies in Iraq
were failing and urged drastic changes.
"The report should have read the events more accurately and turned them
into a good base for a solution. Instead, it contained contradictions in
vision and recommendations," al-Maliki said in an interview on the
pan-Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya.
He said the 96-page report contained "good elements" regarding the
political process and Iraq's unity, but it also included "insults and
negative directions" in regard to the Iraq conflict. He did not elaborate.
The prime minister's comments were the latest in a flurry of criticism
by Iraqi leaders, who have said the recommendations in the Iraq Study
Group report did not acknowledge realities in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq
and infringed on the country's sovereignty.
The nonbinding report recommended direct engagement with Iran and Syria,
approval of a law that could reinstate thousands of former officials of
Saddam's Baath Party to their jobs and a pullback of most American
combat brigades by early 2008.
Al-Maliki also said he planned a Cabinet reshuffle but cautioned that he
would carefully scrutinize candidates for ministerial posts and warned
that he won't accept candidates nominated by his coalition partners if
he found them to be unqualified.
"I am not obliged to accept anyone and I will choose ministers myself if
I have to," he said.
The warning came as the Shiite prime minister's "national unity"
government is facing growing dissent by coalition partners, including
Shiite allies like Muqtada al-Sadr, rival politicians seeking to
sideline the anti-American cleric and Sunni Arab politicians.
Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani, meanwhile, arrived in Syria on
Friday for talks on setting up joint security patrols along the two
countries' border, a crossing point for militants seeking to join the
insurgency in Iraq.
The two countries recently resumed diplomatic relations after a 24-year
rupture.
Both the U.S. and Iraq have accused Syria of failing to take sufficient
steps to stop militants from crossing the border to join insurgents
fighting U.S.-led forces and Iraqi troops. Syria has repeatedly denied
the charge, saying it cannot completely seal its border with Iraq.
In Iraq's western Anbar province, which borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi
Arabia, two suicide car bombs exploded Friday at U.S. checkpoints in the
provincial capital of Ramadi and American soldiers opened fire to foil
one of the attacks, an Iraqi police lieutenant said, speaking on
condition of anonymity because he was concerned for his safety. He said
four Iraqi civilians were killed.
The U.S. military said it had no reports of suicide car bombings in Ramadi.
At least 34 people were killed or found dead Friday, including 22
bullet-riddled bodies discovered in several parts of the capital,
apparent victims of sectarian death squads that have killed hundreds in
recent months.
Gunmen also killed a Shiite tribal sheik linked to British forces in a
drive-by shooting Friday in the southern city of Basra.
The slain cleric, Muhsin al-Kanan, was a member of the provisional
council in Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad,
and had good relations with British forces in the area, police said.
Britain has about 7,200 troops in southern Iraq, mostly in and around
Basra, and Shiite factions and militias have been fighting for control
of the area as they begin to withdraw from some of the provinces in the
region. Attacks by insurgents from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority also have
occurred in the area.
A senior official from the Iraqi Red Crescent, meanwhile, claimed that
harassment from U.S. forces is a greater threat to his group's work than
insurgent attacks.
"The main problem we are facing is the American forces more than the
other forces," Dr. Jamal al-Karbouli, vice president of the Iraqi Red
Crescent, said in Geneva.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said
the U.S.-led coalition forces "strive to ensure they are respectful when
they conduct interaction with the local population."