Amerikkkans Fallujahed on Iraqi Streets As the Puppet Regime Extends State of Emergency


Nine U.S. troops killed in attacks in Iraq
Government extends state of emergency for a month

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 6:44 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed seven U.S. soldiers Thursday in northwest Baghdad, while two Marines were killed in action in western Iraq, the deadliest day for U.S. forces since a suicide attack last month, the U.S. military said.

The soldiers with Task Force Baghdad were on a routine security patrol when the attack occurred at 6 p.m. local time, said Capt. Patricia Brewer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military. Everyone in the vehicle was killed.

No other details were immediately available. Iraq’s insurgents have frequently targeted U.S. troops with crude explosives planted in roads and detonated remotely as patrols pass.

The two Marines were killed in action Thursday in the volatile western Anbar province, the military said. The Marines typically do not give details of how or where their troops are killed for fear of compromising security.

The nine deaths made it the highest single-day toll for the U.S. military in Iraq since a suicide bombing at a mess tent in Mosul on Dec. 21 killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. soldiers and three U.S. contractors.

Several U.S. troops have been killed in recent days in Baghdad and in Anbar, which is home to the volatile city of Fallujah. Tuesday, five U.S. troops were killed: three Task Force Baghdad soldiers who died in a roadside bombing, one who was slain in Anbar and another who died in Balad, north of Baghdad.

The military said the names of the troops who died Thursday were being withheld until their families could be notified.

The deaths Thursday brought the number of U.S. troops killed since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to 1,349, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,062 died as a result of hostile action.

State of emergency extended
The attacks were another sign that the U.S. military has not been able to subdue violence ahead of landmark elections set for Jan. 30.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, acknowledged earlier Thursday that security was poor in four of 18 Iraqi provinces. But he said at a briefing in the capital that delaying the vote would only increase the danger.

“I can’t guarantee that every person in Iraq that wants to vote, goes to a polling booth and can do that safely,” Metz said. “We’re going to do everything possible to create that condition for them, but we are fighting an enemy who cares less who he kills, when he kills and how he kills.

“A delay in the elections just gives the thugs and terrorists more time to continue their intimidation, their cruelty, their brutal murders of innocent people.”

Because of the escalating violence, the Iraqi government extended by another month the state of emergency it announced two months ago except for the Kurdish-run areas north of the country, the government said in a statement. The decree includes a nighttime curfew and gives the government additional power to make arrests and launch operations.

“We expect some escalation [of attacks] here and there” ahead of the elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said. “This is a precaution to protect the Iraqi people as well as the elections.”

If the election takes place, it is expected to shift power to the Shiite Muslim community, an estimated 60 percent of the population that has been dominated by the Sunni Arab minority since modern Iraq was created after World War I.

Bodies of 18 Shiites found
Meanwhile, the bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shiites killed last month while seeking work at a U.S. base were found Wednesday in a field near Mosul, police said Thursday.

Police said the insurgents shot the 18 men, who ranged in age from 14 to 20, execution style on Dec. 8 after stopping their two minibuses about 30 miles west of the volatile city, 225 miles north of Baghdad.

Their hands were tied behind their backs, and each was shot in the head, police said. All the men were Shiites from Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at a U.S. base in Mosul.

As foreign ministers from Iraq’s neighboring states met Thursday in Jordan, King Abdullah II tried to temper remarks that reflected Arab fears that the elections would produce a Shiite-dominated Iraq that would align itself with Persian Iran.

In an interview published Thursday by the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam, the king stressed that he was not opposed to Shiites and said his comments that Iran was trying to influence the vote and create a “Shiite crescent” had been misinterpreted.

Iran, a predominantly Shiite state, called the remarks an insult to Iraqis. It was the only neighbor that did not send its foreign minister to the meeting, which was intended to urge Iraqis to defy boycott calls and take part in the elections.

Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, echoed Abdullah’s claims Thursday, saying the world should not fear that Iraq’s elections would set up an Iranian-style government in Baghdad.

“I believe those fears are exaggerated and misplaced,” Zebari told The Associated Press before the ministerial meeting. “We have a political [process] that checks and balances” domination by a religious group.

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