BAGHDAD, Feb. 9, 2009
4 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq Car Bomb
Suicide Attack In Mosul The Deadliest Against American Forces In Over Nine Months
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(AP / CBS)
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Photo Essay Week In Iraq Photos A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
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Interactive Iraq: 5 Years At War Five years after the U.S.-led invasion, the war wears on.
The blast occurred as U.S. vehicles were passing near an Iraqi police checkpoint in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city and the last major urban battleground in the war against al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents.
A U.S. statement said three U.S. soldiers were killed at the scene. A fourth soldier and an Iraqi interpreter died of wounds at a military hospital, the U.S. said.
An Iraqi police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said two Iraqi policemen and one civilian were wounded in the blast.
It was the deadliest single attack against U.S. troops since May 2, 2008, when four Marines were killed in a roadside bombing in Anbar province, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
Four U.S. soldiers were killed Jan. 26 when two helicopters collided in midair near the northern city of Kirkuk, but U.S. officials said the crash did not appear due to hostile fire.
The latest deaths raised to at least 4,243 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
American casualties have fallen to some of their lowest levels of the war since thousands of Sunnis abandoned the insurgency and U.S. and Iraqi forces routed Shiite militias in Baghdad and Basra last spring.
Only five of the 16 U.S. service members who died in Iraq last month were killed in action.
However, fighting continues in Mosul and elsewhere in northern Iraq — a conflict which U.S. officials say is driven in part by ethnic rivalries between Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
Many Sunni extremists are believed to have fled to the north after being driven from longtime strongholds in Baghdad and central Iraq.
Despite a sharp drop in bombings, shootings and killings, security controls remain intense throughout much of the country because of concern that violence could flare again because of the slow pace of political agreements among the country's ethnic groups.
The government announced Monday that tens of thousands of Iraqi security forces had been stationed along routes leading to the Shiite holy city of Karbala to protect religious pilgrims marching there for rituals this week.
Attacks by al Qaeda in Iraq, other Sunni insurgents, Shiite extremists and a Shiite cult have killed hundreds of people during pilgrimages in recent years.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected to visit Karbala by next Monday to mark the end of 40 days of mourning that follow Ashoura, the anniversary of the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.
He was killed in a battle for the leadership of the nascent Muslim nation following Muhammad's death in 632.
Also Monday, two Iraqi security officials said four Iraqis transferred here from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay were being interrogated.
The officials said the men had been arrested in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo before being handed over to the Iraqis last month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
President Barack Obama has ordered the detention center in Cuba to be closed within a year as part of his overhaul of U.S. national security policy. An estimated 245 men are being held, most of whom have been detained for years without being charged.
A Shiite woman in Basra told The Associated Press that one of the four was believed to be her brother, Hassan Abdul-Hadi Abdul-Said al-Jawhar, who disappeared in 1999 while serving with the Iraqi army in northern Iraq.
The family heard nothing from him until 2004, when it received a handwritten letter from him indicating he was in Guantanamo.
Neda Abdul-Hadi said her family was told Sunday by the International Committee of the Red Cross that her brother was back in Iraq but she had been unable to communicate with him. She said the family had received no word from Iraqi authorities about his whereabouts.
The Red Cross said it would not comment on individual cases. The Pentagon announced Jan. 17 that it had transferred six detainees from Guantanamo — four to Iraq and the others to Algeria and Afghanistan but did not give their names.
Hugh Handeyside, a Seattle lawyer whose firm had filed a motion for release on al-Jawhar's behalf, told the AP by telephone that he had been detained in Afghanistan in 2002 under "circumstances which are classically murky."
He was never charged, Handeyside said.
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 49 Comments
- f*&k it nuke the B@#ches and get it over with the sand will turn to glass and thoil will be safe for us to drill for in about 50 years.
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- jjrous1??? what does your comments have to do with this story? no, really. i just read nothing about how the country of isreal is trying to resemble the nazis in this story. stick to the issue or go find a chat room somewhere.
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- Why does Baghdad tolerate immorality? Iraq festers from forcible sexual assaults, internet child pornography, kiddie prostitutes, and DVDs featuring naked, small children. Felons run street drugs and liquor to the country for fast revenue. Iraq does not need a military force of Americans or Iraqis. Baghdad should consider a national police commissioner to restore dignity, order, and respect.
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- These GI`s weren`t necessarily killed by radical muslims. It could have been Iraqi patriots.
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- Obama didn''''t cause these 4 deaths, neither did Bush. The jerk0ff that set off that bomb is solely responsible. Get that straight. Bush is not the enemy, neither is Obama. The enemy is Radical Islamic fundamentalist idiots.
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Posted by ffoulkes at 07:23 AM : Feb 10, 2009
Libs don''t want to face the reality of who the real "enemy" is. Heavy denial is needed to feed into the "Hate America" frenzy. Our President''s didn''t kill those men, a nutso muslim extremist did, the same type of enemy that would slit a libs throat even as he extended his hand. - Reply to this comment
- Obama didn''t cause these 4 deaths, neither did Bush. The jerk0ff that set off that bomb is solely responsible. Get that straight. Bush is not the enemy, neither is Obama. The enemy is Radical Islamic fundamentalist idiots.
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- I thought obama would get the troops home?? WHAT HAPPENED??
Posted by inDaMiddle at 11:26 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Well, apparently a suicide bomber got close enough to kill four US soldiers. Guess McSame`s "Surge" is spent. - Reply to this comment
- Just 3 more Summers before 2012 boys and girls, enjoy what life you have left.
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- This is the other failed occupation we will lose. The only thing to do is accept defeat, cut and run and give reparations to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan for our latest imperialistic blunder.
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Last I checked, Chimpy left office almost 3 weeks ago - this mess is now the policy of Obumba Rumba Dumba and his merry bunch of Chimp supporters (step fwd Shrillary Pantsuit, Dickless Holbrooke, *** Ross and the rest of the AIPAC jackasses)
Posted by wolfsbaneh
This will ALWAYS be Bushs manufactured war for oil.
Not one of our troops in Iraq died to get the people responsible for 911, not one Iraqi civilian died because we were there to get Bin Laden.
It too Bush 5 minutes to create this destruction, sorry idiot, it will take Obama longer than that to figure out how to get our troops out peacefully.- Reply to this comment
- what a fvcking load of BS.
Congress had every right to ask for any info they wanted or needed - they fvcking well CHOSE not to ask for that info
The likes of Feingold felt they did not have the info necessary and CORRECTLY voted NO - the rest like Obumba Dumba Rumba new Sec of State were a bunch of mealy mouthed yellow bellied SAPS and voted for
You''''re a fvcking moron for defending them and your pissant defence of Obumba Rumba dumba proves yout to be as much a worshipper of him as you called Republicans worshippers of the Chimp
Oh and as for your BS "Change we need" - go look at the Obumba Rumba dumba DOJ explicitly saying they ENDORSE the chimp''''s claim of state secrets in the case in florida involving torture
Obumba is nothing more than Chimpy''''s 3rd term - you morons who spent $millions electing that moron wasted your money !!!! They say that fools and their money are soon parted - your spending of money on Obumba''''s election PROVES it !!!
Posted by wolfsbaneh at 07:51 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Bush/Cheney lied and fabricated intel - It is not Congress''s fault the Executive Branch could not be trusted... - Reply to this comment
- Simple question. How long, how many years?? If US forces are still in Iraq & people are still dying because of it a few years from now, will Obama be a war criminal. If answering the question paints you into a corner I understand.
Posted by Questionnews at 07:21 PM : Feb 09, 2009
No - Obama was not president when the UN Charter was violated.
Bush Exceeded the Authority of HJR114
In October 2002, Congress passed House Joint Resolution 114, which gave Bush limited authority relating to Iraq. HJR114 has been described as legal justification for Bush''s invasion of Iraq but that is not the case.
HJR114 authorized Bush to use military force against Iraq "as he determines to be necessary and appropriate" but required that he meet certain conditions. Bush did not meet these conditions. In addition the entire resolution should be rejected because Congress was misled into signing it in the first place.
Congress did not have access to the same information that Bush had. If they had then it is unlikely that they would have signed HJR114. It is called fraud in the inducement "if the party signing the document knew what he or she was signing, but relied on misrepresentations when induced to sign it." - Reply to this comment
- The answer is that the war was started by the US government; the US government is the american people hence Obumba rumba Dumba is a war criminal NOW
Posted by wolfsbaneh at 07:28 PM : Feb 09, 2009
While I rarely agree with anything you post, at least you can answer a question straight up. Thanks! - Reply to this comment
- I mean if one man begins a rape & the next man continues it, doesn''''''''t it make the second man just as guilty as the first??
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Posted by Questionnews at 07:09 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Nope, he just gets a ''''no credit'''' for not showing his work. Give credit where credit is due...the guy who wrote the exam then subsequently failed it.
Posted by cntrymuzksux at 07:17 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Good response!
IOWEIGN -- Can you type a reasonable response or is taradiddle all you have to respond with? Again, very simple question. - Reply to this comment
- what an idiot, can''''t r yopu read? you must have a television,
last i heard Obama was working on pulling the troops out and ending the republiCON "war to nowhere" in iraq
did you miss the news moron
Posted by pythoncharly at 07:16 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Simple question. How long, how many years?? If US forces are still in Iraq & people are still dying because of it a few years from now, will Obama be a war criminal. If answering the question paints you into a corner I understand. - Reply to this comment
- Since the new administration thinks it is OK to investigate the Bush crime family, just don''t charge them with any serious stuff, looks like business as usual. After all it is not nice to harm fellow members of the biggest richest private club in the world.
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- I am all for getting out of Irag, and I don''t want our troops in Afganistan either. Leave these poor people alone. If you want to fight, go clean Israel''s clock, they are really sick.
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- Just curious. How long do we have to be in Iraq before Obama gets to carry the title of War Criminal?
I mean if one man begins a rape & the next man continues it, doesn''''t it make the second man just as guilty as the first??
Posted by Questionnews at 07:09 PM : Feb 09, 2009
You live in a warped world... - Reply to this comment
- I mean if one man begins a rape & the next man continues it, doesn''''t it make the second man just as guilty as the first??
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Posted by Questionnews at 07:09 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Nope, he just gets a ''no credit'' for not showing his work. Give credit where credit is due...the guy who wrote the exam then subsequently failed it. - Reply to this comment
- bush, cheney and anyone that voted for republicons in the last election should go to iraq for a coupe of years,
you evangelical bible thumpers need a dose of reality
war criminals
Posted by pythoncharly at 06:47 PM : Feb 09, 2009
Just curious. How long do we have to be in Iraq before Obama gets to carry the title of War Criminal?
I mean if one man begins a rape & the next man continues it, doesn''t it make the second man just as guilty as the first?? - Reply to this comment
