BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Tuesday that four U.S. soldiers died in two roadside bombings near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi and a fifth died in a blast north of Baghdad, pushing the toll of American forces killed in Iraq past 1,900.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said a suicide car bombing killed four other Americans ? a diplomatic security agent and three private security agents ? traveling in a convoy Monday in Mosul. The four were attached to the embassy?s regional office in the northern city, Iraq?s third-largest, said spokesman Peter J. Mitchell.
Four of the soldiers were killed in two separate bomb attacks Monday during combat operations in Ramadi, a volatile city 70 miles west of Baghdad. The victims were U.S. Army soldiers attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
The fifth soldier, from the 18th Military Police Brigade, was killed Tuesday by a roadside bomb 75 miles north of the capital.
As of Tuesday, 1,904 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,483 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military. The figures include five military civilians.
Scene of intense but sporadic fighting
Ramadi has been the scene of intense but sporadic fighting since the insurgency gained strength and began its offensive against U.S. forces in the summer of 2003.
The Euphrates River city is the capital of Anbar Province, a huge region that stretches from Baghdad to the Saudi, Jordanian and Syrian borders. Many cities, towns and villages along the river are insurgent strongholds, where Saddam Hussein loyalists have teamed with foreign fighters of al-Qaida in Iraq to battle the Americans and U.S.-trained Iraqi army and police.
There have been reports of fighting in the region since Thursday, when al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet posting that its forces and the Americans had engaged in heavy combat.
In recent weeks, rebel bombs have been responsible for 70 percent to 80 percent of American soldiers killed or wounded, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Boylan.
Since the start of the war, about 32 percent of American military deaths have been from improvised explosives, suicide bombs or other such blasts ? compared with about 48 percent in firefights and other combat. About 19 percent died in accidents.
The Sunni-dominated insurgency has conducted a rampage of violent attacks since a suicide bomber blew himself up a week ago amid a group of men seeking work in Baghdad, killing 112 people, mostly Shiites. Thirteen more bombings in the next 10 hours left a death toll of 167, the bloodiest day in the capital since the invasion.
Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility, and its leader, Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared war on Iraq?s Shiite majority.
Originally posted by: HardWarrior
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Originally posted by: EXman
What's your Fing Idea? Or are you fresh outta ideas? Soldiers get Killed it is a possiblity in their job description. Find one soldier that backs away from Iraq and you'll get yourself a lil pussy for once.
grrrr:disgust:
The current level of violence in Iraq is unmatched. It's the Killing Fields, all over again, courtesy of the USA. What have we done...
You think everything was hunky dory in Iraq before? Should we remind you that Sadaam killed thousands and thousands with weapons of mass destruction already? Hell he even killed off many in his family and many more in the government the first day he had absolute power. Ever seen that footage?
:thumbsup:
Having read the first post and only a few after there is one thing that annoys me.
Bushes judgement and the act of sending them into Iraq does not kill them. Bush does not kill these soldiers. Yet you people act like he does. Im sure he wishes with all of his heart that none of these terrible tragedies would have happened in his presidency, yet they did; and he is dealing with it in what way he see fit. Seeing as this was going on through out the election, common sense would say that Bush obviously was doing something right or otherwise we would be talking about John Kerry right now.
TO finish up, Bush is not the person that kills these soldiers. The terrorist, and the people who would like nothing more than utter destruction on the free nations of the world, are the people who do this. Not bush...
To prove this think about what Tony Blair said:
"If they could have killed not 5000 but 50,000 does anyone doubt that they would and would have rejoiced in it"
I know many of you dont agree with Bush but please have the decency to acknowledge that he does not wish for these soldiers to die, and im sure that he didn't want any of the innocent civilians (9-11) to die either.
-Kevin
The point is that he put these soldiers there GF, to die and be killed for no good reason, against people who have done nothing to us, and who didn't seek war with us. Whether Bush wants them to die really isn't the issue, that he's willing to sacrifice them for nothing, however, is.
Oh, and EXman, the USA doesn't have the right to decide which countries they invent lies to invade. Especially when the country is one in which they created and armed the dictator.
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Oh, and EXman, the USA doesn't have the right to decide which countries they invent lies to invade. Especially when the country is one in which they created and armed the dictator.
Nice choice of words there :roll:
Invent lies to invade. Well if you think we invaded from oil it looks like you were wrong as well then doesn't it. It would seem to me that if we obatined all these oil refineries, Barrel Price would go down and gas would go down. Geez doesn't look like that is happening does it :roll: ?
-Kevin
Man I want some of what you are smoking!LOL:laugh:Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
the Gulf War was an act of peace and kind ness.
-Kevin
Didn't seek war. Because the Gulf War was an act of peace and kind ness. Not only that the mass executions were not acceptable in any country. Would you rather Saddam have attacked us and forced another 9/11 before you decided to get up off your ass and do something.
How many more innocent people have to die before you stop preaching that Saddam meant no harm. I suppose for that matter, that Bin Laden is just as Angelic as Saddam in your eyes.
Man I want some of what you are smoking!LOL
Maybe you should do some research on Irai oil production. Sitting on oil that's in the ground will not change prices. If you think oil has nothing to do with the world's interest in the ME, you are naive.
Wow, you should listen to yourself. Here a few things for your to ponder. What if good ol' Tony Blair may in the future decide to attack the us, or Paul Martin may have some distant plan to order planes to fly into your buildings. Are you going to invade Britian and Canada too?? Oh and those communists, they mean no good, oust china...Hell, conquer the whole world. Seeing as EVERYONE must have WMD's now you even have justification.
Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
I would have killed OBL long ago, for his involvement in many other terrorist acts.Originally posted by: mOeeOm
Please everyone stay on topic and force an answer out of Chicken, he seems to know everything and how he woulda stopped 9/11.
Originally posted by: Taggart
It's a tough situation, but I have faith that the President can steer us through this and the world will be a better place in the end.
Originally posted by: Turtle 1
Originally posted by: Taggart
It's a tough situation, but I have faith that the President can steer us through this and the world will be a better place in the end.
What he said
Originally posted by: RBachman
Originally posted by: Turtle 1
Originally posted by: Taggart
It's a tough situation, but I have faith that the President can steer us through this and the world will be a better place in the end.
What he said
*sigh*
The lengths some will go to in order to avoid admitting they were wrong... Here we are in Vietnam pt. 2 and you're actually telling yourself it'll turn out well?
Originally posted by: conjur
Hey, NoSmirk...same political ideology running the show, though. You and your alter ego keep forgetting that part.
Originally posted by: ShadesOfGrey
Hey LIAR, I'm not NoSmirk. Never have been, never will be. Time for you to find a different LIE to keep spewing.
Listening to Galloway the other day on the Michael Medved show, he was criticizing the US and others for supporting bin Laden back in those days.Originally posted by: TGS
Great, we could have killed him right after we armed and trained the mujahideen to fight the soviets. I wonder how much nuclear materials are missing from the now defunct USSR. That little arms race will probably cost us a large toll later on. Though all that matters is we had won the Cold War. No matter what it is costing the current generations, we've made our mark on history, and now we can stumble into more along those lines.Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
I would have killed OBL long ago, for his involvement in many other terrorist acts.Originally posted by: mOeeOm
Please everyone stay on topic and force an answer out of Chicken, he seems to know everything and how he woulda stopped 9/11.
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend, and the US should stay pretending that they think otherwise. We always seem to pay with American blood, with irrational thinking such as this, and it sickens me greatly.