February 11, 2009 5:19 PM
- Text
2 GIs Killed In Iraq Attack
(CBS/AP)
Insurgents launched an attack on a U.S. combat post in Iraq Monday, sending in a suicide bomber and clashing with American troops, the military and residents said. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 wounded, the military said.
The target was an Iraqi police station that U.S. soldiers use as a base in the town of Tarmiyah, a violent Sunni Arab stronghold about 25 miles north of Baghdad, reports CBS news chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.
The attack came on a day when a string of car bombings and other attacks claimed at least 34 Iraqi lives in Baghdad and elsewhere, including a late afternoon mortar attack in the capital which killed 11, according to police.
The assault on the American forces began with a suicide bomber exploding a vehicle outside the base north of Baghdad, said the military statement. It gave no further details beyond the number of dead and wounded. Residents said U.S. forces fought with insurgents after the suicide bomber tried to break through barriers around the base.
For hours, helicopters were seen landing at the base and leaving.
The situation in Tarmiyah Monday night is tense with residents saying it's obvious the U.S. means business, reports Logan. Residents told CBS News that American-armored vehicles are blocking the roads and the town itself has been sealed off as U.S. forces search for those involved in the attack.
The military also said Monday that two personnel were killed while conducting combat operations in western Iraq during the weekend.
A Marine was killed Saturday and an Army soldier died Sunday while fighting in the Anbar province, the statements said without giving further details. Their names were not immediately made public.
Anbar is a main battlefield against Sunni insurgents
The mortar attack in Baghdad hit just before sunset in the Dora area, which is surrounded by predominantly Sunni neighborhoods. Police and hospital officials put the death toll at 11, but it was unclear whether that number was likely to rise.
Earlier, five people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb-rigged belt on a public bus headed for the mostly Shiite area of Karradah, in central Baghdad, police reported.
A roadside bomb killed three policemen in the Shiite area of Zafraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, wounding two other people, including a civilian, police said. Only 100 yards away, a bomb hidden in an open-air market exploded, killing at least five.
In Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of the capital, a car bomb went off among auto repair shops, killing two and wounding two, police said. Mahmoudiya is mostly Shiite with Sunnis living in villages around the community and has long been a flashpoint for sectarian violence.
In other developments:
Senator John McCain said Monday that history will remember Donald Rumsfeld as "one of the worst secretaries of defense." McCain said America is "paying a very heavy price" for what he calls Rumsfeld's "mismanagement."
Iraq's prime minister has ordered an investigation into allegations by a Sunni Arab woman that she was raped by three members of the Shiite-dominated police force after she was detained over the weekend.
A Marine who apologized for the kidnap and murder of an Iraqi man by his squad has been sentenced to eight years in military prison. Lance Corporal Robert Pennington was sentenced to 14 years Saturday, but a military judge suspended six years of the sentence under terms of a pretrial agreement.
In Buhriz, a Sunni-dominated town about 35 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers kicked in doors and scoured homes, but most dwellings were eerily empty. Soldiers confiscated new Iraqi army uniforms in a building not known to house troops, along with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and AK-47 magazines. There has been growing suspicion that militants have posed as Iraqi soldiers in some attacks and ambushes.
The target was an Iraqi police station that U.S. soldiers use as a base in the town of Tarmiyah, a violent Sunni Arab stronghold about 25 miles north of Baghdad, reports CBS news chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.
The attack came on a day when a string of car bombings and other attacks claimed at least 34 Iraqi lives in Baghdad and elsewhere, including a late afternoon mortar attack in the capital which killed 11, according to police.
The assault on the American forces began with a suicide bomber exploding a vehicle outside the base north of Baghdad, said the military statement. It gave no further details beyond the number of dead and wounded. Residents said U.S. forces fought with insurgents after the suicide bomber tried to break through barriers around the base.
For hours, helicopters were seen landing at the base and leaving.
The situation in Tarmiyah Monday night is tense with residents saying it's obvious the U.S. means business, reports Logan. Residents told CBS News that American-armored vehicles are blocking the roads and the town itself has been sealed off as U.S. forces search for those involved in the attack.
The military also said Monday that two personnel were killed while conducting combat operations in western Iraq during the weekend.
A Marine was killed Saturday and an Army soldier died Sunday while fighting in the Anbar province, the statements said without giving further details. Their names were not immediately made public.
Anbar is a main battlefield against Sunni insurgents
The mortar attack in Baghdad hit just before sunset in the Dora area, which is surrounded by predominantly Sunni neighborhoods. Police and hospital officials put the death toll at 11, but it was unclear whether that number was likely to rise.
Earlier, five people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb-rigged belt on a public bus headed for the mostly Shiite area of Karradah, in central Baghdad, police reported.
A roadside bomb killed three policemen in the Shiite area of Zafraniyah in southeastern Baghdad, wounding two other people, including a civilian, police said. Only 100 yards away, a bomb hidden in an open-air market exploded, killing at least five.
In Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of the capital, a car bomb went off among auto repair shops, killing two and wounding two, police said. Mahmoudiya is mostly Shiite with Sunnis living in villages around the community and has long been a flashpoint for sectarian violence.
In other developments:
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