Another GI Killed In Iraq
As President Bush flew over the country, U.S. forces locked down an Iraqi neighborhood after once again encountering deadly resistance.
One soldier was killed Thursday and five wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade launched at an Army checkpoint near a police station in the central Iraqi town of Fallujah. The wounded were airlifted to a military field hospital. No identities were made public.
Scores of U.S. Army military police sealed off the area and launched house-to-house searches for the unidentified assailants. Residents said the attack left "blood everywhere."
The attack came as Air Force One passed over Iraq following the end of the president's trip to Europe and the Middle East. Mr. Bush had earlier praised U.S. troops for ridding the world of a "great evil."
Fallujah has been a flashpoint of resistance to American occupation, particularly since late April after confrontations between residents and American forces left 18 Iraqis dead and at least 78 wounded.
In other developments:
Thursday's assault came a day after more than 1,500 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division — which helped fight the war and take Baghdad — moved into Fallujah and surrounding central Iraqi areas.
The attacker was an "unknown assailant," according to the military statement. It did not say if any Iraqis were killed or wounded in the ensuing battle. Weapons were found in a search of the area after the incident, Green said.
The attack comes as Mr. Bush and his other pro-war allies face domestic pressure over the credibility of the case to attack Iraq for its suspected possession of weapons of mass destruction.
No evidence of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons has been uncovered during the U.N. inspections before the war and following Saddam's ouster some two months ago.
"We're on the look. We'll reveal the truth," Mr. Bush told U.S. troops in Qatar, which hosted the U.S. command center for the war. Without specifically promising weapons would be found, he said, "One thing is certain: no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because the Iraqi regime is no more."
Feeling the heat of accusations he overstated the Iraqi threat, Blair says he'll cooperate with a parliamentary probe into his handling of intelligence information about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, said Wednesday that the spate of attacks in and around Fallujah was a last-ditch effort by Saddam supporters.
"I don't see any pattern of centralized command and control over these incidents," McKiernan said.