9 U.S. Soldiers Dead In Iraq
Nine U.S. soldiers died in Iraq, the military said Monday, including seven in a vehicle accident during a prisoner transport in Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Two of the prisoners also died.
The seven Multinational Division - Baghdad soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded in a western section of the capital, the military said in a statement. Two prisoners detained previously and being transported were killed in the accident, and a third was injured, the military said.
The military said it did not immediately have further details.
Another soldier was killed and two more were injured east of Baghdad in a non-combat incident when their vehicle overturned and caught fire, according to a separate statement.
The cause of both accidents are under investigation, the military said.
A Task Force Lightning soldier also died from injuries sustained during an attack Sunday in northern Iraq, the U.S. command said. The soldier's patrol came under rocket fire in the Kirkuk area.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told lawmakers Monday that Iraqi forces were not ready to take over security from the U.S. military across the country.
"There have been tangible improvements in security in the recent period in Baghdad and the provinces but it is not enough," he told parliament. "Despite the security improvement, we still need more efforts and time in order for our armed forces to be able to take over security in all Iraqi provinces from the multinational forces that helped us in a great way in fighting terrorism and outlaws."
Al-Maliki made the comment hours before the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus were to appear in the U.S. Congress to deliver reports on Iraq's progress amid a debate over calls to start bringing American troops home.
The two Americans were widely expected to maintain that this year's troop buildup has reduced violent attacks in Baghdad and argue for more time to restore security.
Al-Maliki said that violence had dropped 75 percent in the Baghdad area since the U.S. began pouring in additional troops at the start of the year. He gave no figures.
"The key to reconstruction, economic development and improving peoples' standard of living is security," he said.
Still, attacks in the capital have picked up in recent days in the run-up to the report and as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears, a time when violence usually spikes higher.
CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that most Iraqi citizens seem to disagree with the positive assessments of the troop surge.
"You only have to look at the number of Iraqis trying to flee the country every day to know they don't feel safer," Logan said on CBS' Early Show. "They don't believe any gains being made in security are enduring."
Evidence of Iraqi citizens' lack of confidence in improvements heralded by the U.S. military was also reported Monday by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
A poll of about 2,000 ordinary Iraqis by the BBC, in conjunction with ABC News and Japan's NHK, found that 70 percent believe security in the area covered by the troop surge has deteriorated in the last six months.
Sixty-percent of those polled also said attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq were justified.
In Other Developments:
U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters killed three civilians Monday in the Shiite area of Sadr City in a pre-dawn raid on the home of a suspected militia leader, police and residents said. Ground forces searched four houses but failed to find the suspect, U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl said. He identified the suspect only as "a criminal militia special group commander," a term associated with splinter factions of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
In the Sunni city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops got into a fierce firefight with suspected al Qaeda in Iraq fighters in a morning assault. Twelve of the insurgents were killed and three U.S. soldiers were wounded, the military said in a statement. Three al Qaeda suspects were also detained, while a fourth person at the scene was identified as a hostage being held for ransom. The injured soldiers were taken to Balad Air Base for treatment and were all in stable condition, the U.S. military said.
The U.S. command announced that a U.S. soldier, whose patrol in the Kirkuk area was hit with rockets on Sunday, had died from injuries sustained in the attack. Further details were not immediately available.
Three former Saddam regime officials can be executed without presidential decrees because of the scale of their crimes, a judicial official said Monday. Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai was convicted along with Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali" al-Majid and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy operations director of the Iraqi armed forces, of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the massacre of thousands of Kurds two decades ago. President Jalal Talabani said he had reservations about hanging former Iraqi army officers who were acting under threat of death from Saddam.
President Bush's war strategy is failing and the top military commander in Iraq is "dead flat wrong" for warning against major changes, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Sunday. Ahead of Monday's crucial testimony by Bush's leading military and political advisers on Iraq, Sen. Joseph Biden indicated that he and other Democrats would persist in efforts to set target dates for bringing troops home.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The seven Multinational Division - Baghdad soldiers were killed and 11 others wounded in a western section of the capital, the military said in a statement. Two prisoners detained previously and being transported were killed in the accident, and a third was injured, the military said.
The military said it did not immediately have further details.
Another soldier was killed and two more were injured east of Baghdad in a non-combat incident when their vehicle overturned and caught fire, according to a separate statement.
The cause of both accidents are under investigation, the military said.
A Task Force Lightning soldier also died from injuries sustained during an attack Sunday in northern Iraq, the U.S. command said. The soldier's patrol came under rocket fire in the Kirkuk area.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told lawmakers Monday that Iraqi forces were not ready to take over security from the U.S. military across the country.
"There have been tangible improvements in security in the recent period in Baghdad and the provinces but it is not enough," he told parliament. "Despite the security improvement, we still need more efforts and time in order for our armed forces to be able to take over security in all Iraqi provinces from the multinational forces that helped us in a great way in fighting terrorism and outlaws."
Al-Maliki made the comment hours before the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and top U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus were to appear in the U.S. Congress to deliver reports on Iraq's progress amid a debate over calls to start bringing American troops home.
The two Americans were widely expected to maintain that this year's troop buildup has reduced violent attacks in Baghdad and argue for more time to restore security.
Al-Maliki said that violence had dropped 75 percent in the Baghdad area since the U.S. began pouring in additional troops at the start of the year. He gave no figures.
"The key to reconstruction, economic development and improving peoples' standard of living is security," he said.
Still, attacks in the capital have picked up in recent days in the run-up to the report and as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan nears, a time when violence usually spikes higher.
CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports that most Iraqi citizens seem to disagree with the positive assessments of the troop surge.
"You only have to look at the number of Iraqis trying to flee the country every day to know they don't feel safer," Logan said on CBS' Early Show. "They don't believe any gains being made in security are enduring."
Evidence of Iraqi citizens' lack of confidence in improvements heralded by the U.S. military was also reported Monday by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
A poll of about 2,000 ordinary Iraqis by the BBC, in conjunction with ABC News and Japan's NHK, found that 70 percent believe security in the area covered by the troop surge has deteriorated in the last six months.
Sixty-percent of those polled also said attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq were justified.
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Posted by toldyouso21 at 02:28 PM : Sep 11, 2007
Again--the same historical perspective must be kept in mind, Iraq as a country didn''t exist 100 years ago. Invading is being misconstrued with emancipating, and if you (the people of Iraq) don''t have the foundation to make good on your emancipating, it appears like an invasion. This is not like our manifest destiny from sea to shining sea, which meant the elimination of the native people who were squatting on our future lands(sic). Iraq is not going to be like Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, or any of their other 16 territories of the U.S. They will keep their sovereignty.
But my belief that we don''t need to be there, goes hand in hand with--we didn''t need to create that country to begin with.
"Nothing like ''''freedom'''' imposed at the point of a gun, drop of a bomb or over 170,000 foreigners in your country ordering you about--AND KILLING, TORTURING OR IMPRISONING ALL WHO RESIST THEM. YEP. THAT''S FREEDUMMM ALL RIGHT.
Posted by toldyouso21 at 02:32 PM : Sep 11, 2007
All of those choices are done by the invading and occupying army of the US that claims to have "FREED" them. Nothing like ''freedom'' imposed at the point of a gun, drop of a bomb or over 170,000 foreigners in your country ordering you about.
Posted by finewoven at 02:14 PM : Sep 11, 2007
The biggest difference between our fight for liberty and Iraqs is that no one invaded the US and imposed this fight on us. There might have been a very different outcome if say, the French or Spanish had invaded America, started killing Americans and the British, then told us they were freeing us and we had an obligation to help them finish conquering us and get the British out.
I''d lay very big odds--that in such a scenario, we''d have put our beef with England aside for the moment and concentrating on routing and defeating this invader who dared to come in and force us down a path we never go to decide on. Consider that. Iraqis never had a choice to opt for either democracy or in living or dying for our version of ''freeing them'' never has something so noble and good been perverted so thoroughly as the concept of "FREE dom" and what we have visited upon that country.
Posted by FeelFree1 at 07:53 PM : Sep 10, 2007
Sorry FeelFree1, I''ve been out-of-pocket for the last 24hrs. But you seem to not have the perspective of the history there. The Ottoman Empire, divided up after the World Wars, and also the U.S. placed Saddam in power, mainly because he "seemed" moderate. I suppose he may have been in consideration to many others in that part of the world. I accept that our reasoning for going into Iraq was flawed, and that some unseasoned American soldiers did some terrible things. I also accept that the best made plan fail, not to say that ulterior motives where included in the plan that made it more messy. BUT I DO NOT BELIEVE PRESIDENT BUSH IS ANYTHING MORE THAN A NORMAL, PRONE TO ERROR HUMAN BEING. He does not have the characteristics of a demigod as you seem to suggest.
The thing about liberty is, you have the right to make mistakes. Remember, for us, this liberty came during the Enlightenment, and had a foundation of the Magna Carta, prior to the Declaration of Independence. But liberty doesn%u2019t make us perfect, we suffered a terrible Civil War of our own too. It does allow us to choose to not make the same mistakes again though.
THIS NEWS service has been a propaganda SOURCE for George Bush since day 1 so I think everyone who are being so judgmental should just look at both sides.
Thank Goodness you are not in any office of these United States. I got a better idea YOU go and fight for Bush.