Two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi attackers were killed and nine other American troops were wounded in a firefight Tuesday in the town of Fallujah, some 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Six Iraqis were arrested and were being interrogated, said Maj. Randy Martin, a spokesman for the U.S. Army's V Corps. The attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in the attack, the U.S. Central Command said, but Martin said the grenade was thrown by hand, AP reported.
It should be recalled that on Sunday Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the Iraqi people did not wait long to realize that the United States was an occupying force and start resistance attacks. He said many thought that resistance operations against the U.S. forces in Iraq will need months or years to begin.
"But information confirms that the U.S. soldiers are not being killed (in Iraq) in car accidents. They are being killed by bullets and explosive charges," Nasrallah claimed.
The deaths on Tuesday came after one of the most violent days for U.S. occupying forces in recent weeks. Four US soldiers died and six others were injured in Iraq Monday amidst an outburst of guerrilla activity and street violence, according to news agencies.
A soldier was killed Monday and another wounded when their convoy was ambushed in northern Iraq, and four soldiers were hurt in what appeared to be a land-mine attack in a Baghdad neighborhood.
In one incident, one American soldier was killed and three wounded when their vehicle ran over a land mine or some other sort of unexploded ordnance on a major highway leading to the Baghdad airport, the US Central Command said.
"The incident ... appears to be a result of hostile action, though the specific circumstances of the incident are unconfirmed," the command said in a statement.
Also on Monday, the US military reported the death of one soldier and the wounding of another when their convoy was ambushed and attacked by unidentified Iraqi gunmen, in an area close to Iraq’s border with Syria.
The eight-vehicle re-supply convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade and heavy machine gun fire as it moved close to the town of Hadithah, an estimated 192 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad.
"Attack helicopters and ground forces were immediately brought in to secure the area and seek out the attackers," the Central Command said. However, there was no subsequent word if the search was successful. The command said the ambush happened at 6:15 a.m. (local time) and that the troops belonged to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is based at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In the meantime, US commanders in Iraq had to deal separately with at least two fatal accidents as well.
One soldier drowned Momday after diving into an aqueduct south of the northern city of Kirkuk, according to Central Command spokesman Commander David Culler.
Meanwhile, in a traffic crash, another was killed and two more injured after their vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer on a road northwest of the city of Tallil. "It was heavy on accidents today," Culler said.
The new casualties came as Americans paid tribute to their war dead during Memorial Day ceremonies throughout the country.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking at Arlington National Cemetery, vowed the United States would not retreat in the wake of news dangers and threats in Iraq. "They will be met with the same courage, the same commitment and like the foes of times past, they, too, will be defeated," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
