5 U.S. Soldiers Reported Killed in Iraq
Pastor Dale Morgan
May 4, 1:42 PM EDT
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5 U.S. Soldiers Reported Killed in Iraq*
By THOMAS WAGNER
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) -- American forces broke up a Shiite militant cell believed
to be smuggling an armor-piercing Iranian weapon responsible for killing
an increasing number of Americans and Iraqis, the military said.
Separately, the U.S. announced the deaths of five American soldiers and
an Iraqi interpreter.
Roadside bombs were responsible for three of the American deaths
announced Friday and have long been the No. 1 killer of U.S. and Iraqi
forces in Iraq, but the use of the Iranian explosively formed
penetrators, or EFP's, is rising. The weapons, which hurl a fist-sized
lump of molten copper, can pierce even U.S. armored vehicles newly
designed to deflect roadside bombs.
In Sadr City, the Baghdad slum that is home to Shiite militias allied
with radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, coalition raids
rounded up 16 suspected members of a militant cell that brought in the
Iranian weapons, as well as militants seeking terrorist training, the
U.S. said. Intelligence reports also indicate the cell is linked to
kidnappings in Iraq, the statement said.
The military said over the last six months U.S. forces have found and
destroyed four caches of Iranian-linked weapons around Mahmoudiya, a
mostly Shiite enclave surrounded by Sunni-dominated areas about 20 miles
south of Baghdad. Sectarian violence and attacks by militias and
insurgents on American and Iraqi forces are common in the area.
Iranian officials deny importing weapons or militants into neighboring
Iraq, but The Washington Post reported Friday that attacks in Iraq
involving Iranian-made EFPs reached a record high last month.
Quoting Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who oversees day-to-day U.S.
military operations in Iraq, the paper said the number of attacks with
the projectiles rose to 65 in April, most of them in predominantly
Shiite eastern Baghdad. Officials said the projectiles are used almost
exclusively by Shiite fighters against U.S. military targets.
EFPs were first reported used in Iraq in 2005 against British forces in
the south, but have grown increasingly common, primarily in Baghdad.
The Post quoted Odierno as saying that before April, the month with the
greatest number of projectile attacks was December 2006, with 62. It
said the use of projectile weapons has risen over time as other types of
bombs have become less effective against added U.S. armor.
Overall attacks using roadside bombs doubled in Iraq from 2006 to 2007
and number about 1,200 a month, the Post said. They cause roughly 70
percent of the casualties suffered by U.S. troops, the paper said.
Roadside bombings on Friday killed an American soldier and, separately,
five Iraqi policemen. Elsewhere in the capital on Thursday, roadside
bombs killed two U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter. Two other
American soldiers were killed Thursday in fighting in Anbar province.
Seprately, seven bodies were found floating in the Diyala River in
Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and snipers were preventing
police and medical teams from recovering from the remains along with
other bodies spotted in recent weeks from the waterway, police said.
Also Friday, the U.S. military identified two more top al-Qaida aides
killed earlier this week targeting Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri, a
senior propagandist for the terror network.
The American operation north of Baghdad led to days of conflicting
reports from the Iraqi government that the leaders of al-Qaida and its
front group, the Islamic State of Iraq had been killed.
The chief U.S. military spokesman on Thursday said the U.S. did not have
the bodies of al-Qaida boss Abu Ayyub al-Masri or Islamic State leader
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and did not know "of anybody that does."
The military on Friday identified two of the other slain militants as
al-Jubouri's spiritual guide Sabah Hilal al-Shihawi and a foreign
fighter, Abu Ammar al-Masri, who it said was helping with insurgent
activity and infrastructure support for al-Qaida.
Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, another U.S. military spokesman, said
Friday that Abu Ammar al-Masri is unrelated to the al-Qaida boss.