Saddam's Soldiers Invited Back
Iraq Defense Minister Makes Offer Contingent On Background Checks
-
Play CBS Video Video Iraq Bombing Spree The effort to stop roadside bombings in Iraq is a continuing game of cat-and-mouse technology, with deadly consequences. Kimberley Dozier reports.
-
Video Violence Erupts In Ramadi CBS News RAW: Insurgents and U.S. forces fought in Ramadi, Iraq, which is the Sunni heartland. In other news, Iraqi officials released 124 detainees to mark the end of Ramadan.
-
-
U.S. soldiers secure the site where a car bomb exploded in the city of Kirkuk, Nov. 2, 2005. One civilian was killed and nine were wounded in the attack. (Getty Images/Marwan Ibrahim)
-
U.S. soldiers search for insurgents in a market in the city of Mosul, north of Baghdad, Nov. 2, 2005. (Getty Images/CRIS BOURONCLE)
-
People look at the debris Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005 at the site where a suicide bomber detonated a minibus in an outdoor market packed with shoppers ahead of a Muslim festival, killing about 20 people and wounding more than 60, in Musayyib, Iraq. (AP)
-
-
Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
-
Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
-
Interactive Iraq Votes Election results, facts on candidates and the polling, photos and more.
Later Wednesday, a Marine AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter crashed just north of Ramadi, killing its two Marine crew members, the military said. A U.S. statement said the cause of the crash was under investigation.
But APTN quoted an Iraqi resident as saying the helicopter was shot down. Hours after the crash, a Marine Corps F-18D fighter jet dropped two 500-pound bombs on what the U.S. military described as an "insurgent command center" about 400 yards from where the helicopter went down. There was no report of casualties in the airstrike.
In Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was mortally wounded when his patrol came under small arms fire Wednesday, the military said. One insurgent was killed when the American patrol returned fire and another died when a U.S. Air Force jet blasted the building where he had taken refuge, the military added.
The sixth fatality was a soldier from the Army's Task Force Baghdad who was killed by a roadside bomb Wednesday in a southern district of the capital, the military said.
The latest deaths follow the fourth deadliest month for American troops since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Most of the 96 Americans killed in October were victims of roadside bombs.
The U.S. decision to disband Saddam's 400,000-member army soon after he was ousted in April 2003 has been widely seen as a major contributor to the growth of the insurgency, which is fueled by Sunni ex-soldiers.
A Defense Ministry official said Wednesday that former soldiers wishing to re-enlist must report to recruiting centers Nov. 5 through Dec. 15. They will be interviewed and undergo background checks before they can return to active service, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
He said Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab, made the decision.
The U.S. command said it is accelerating counterinsurgency training for newly arrived officers, including the best ways to protect their troops against roadside bombs.
Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the U.S. command will soon open the training school at Taji, an air base 12 miles north of Baghdad. U.S. troops undergo counterinsurgency training before heading to Iraq, but the command wants newcomers to become familiar with the latest insurgent tactics.
©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
