Man In Iraqi Uniform Kills 2 U.S. Troops
A gunman wearing an Iraqi army uniform opened fire on a U.S. military team Saturday, killing two American soldiers and wounding three others at a combat outpost in northern Iraq, the military said.
A military statement said the attacker was killed after the ambush-style assault 12 miles south of Mosul, which is one of the last urban strongholds for Sunni insurgents.
In the past, attackers have used military and police uniforms to bypass checkpoints and gain access to heavily guarded bases.
The U.S. statement gave no other information on the attack, but Iraqi military officials said the gunman was a Sunni Muslim cleric assigned to an Iraqi army unit.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The attack could elevate worries about militant infiltration in Iraqi security forces as the U.S. military turns over more responsibilities in a phased withdrawal process before all American forces leave at the end of 2011.
In late February, two Iraqi police officers in Mosul opened fire on a visiting U.S. military team, killing one American soldier and an interpreter. The gunmen remain fugitives.
Remains Of Navy SEAL, Marine Return Home From Iraq
A Navy SEAL from southeastern Massachusetts and a Marine from southwest Ohio who were both killed in Iraq have returned home.
On Friday, the remains of U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Tyler J. Trahan and Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Mark A. Wojciechowski arrived at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
Trahan was a 2004 graduate of Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School. He had attended the Massachusetts Maritime Academy before joining the Navy in 2006.
His father, Jean-Pierre Trahan, told The Standard-Times of New Bedford that his son always wanted to serve his country and was the third generation of his family in the military.
His teachers remember Trahan as a committed student and athlete. He played football and was a member of the National Honor Society.
Wojciechowski, 25, of Cincinnati, died Thursday while supporting combat operations in Iraq's Anbar province.
His stepgrandmother, Cathy Dillinger, said the 25-year-old was on a mission with a bomb squad. She said Wojciechowski had been a Marine for six years and was on his second deployment to Iraq.
Wojciechowski attended Glen Este High School in suburban Cincinnati - the same school from which Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin graduated.
Maupin was taken hostage by insurgents in 2004. His remains were recovered near Baghdad last year.
Reclusive Shiite Cleric Al-Sadr Visits Turkey
An Iraqi cleric who led bloody rebellions against U.S. troops but stayed out of public view in the last two years has made an unusually visible appearance in Turkey, which is raising its own profile as a mediator in the region.
Although al-Sadr shunned the media at Saturday's event at a hotel, his participation as well as a photograph of him seated with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a meeting a day earlier in Ankara were a departure from his customary reclusiveness.
Al-Sadr has made announcements on his Web site and issued statements for Friday prayers usually relayed via aides. But he was last seen in the media when he gave a television interview with Al-Jazeera on March 29, 2008. The last time he appeared in person in public was May 25, 2007, when he delivered a sermon in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Kufa.
"We have put down our arms. Arms will not be raised, especially against the Iraqi soldiers," Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr, said in Istanbul.
"However the resistance will continue," he said. "There is economic, political and cultural resistance against the outside forces who are invading our land."
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, al-Sadr's Shiite militia fought U.S. troops intermittently until a cease-fire last May. Despite his wide appeal to segments of Iraq's Shiite poor, al-Sadr was viewed as troublesome by the Shiite-led government and hundreds of his supporters were arrested on suspicion of involvement in Iran-linked militant cells.
Al-Sadr said last year that his withdrawal from public view was motivated in part by his desire to focus on his studies to become a mujtahid, or a religious authority. On Saturday, al-Obeidi said al-Sadr's whereabouts was kept secret, possibly reflecting concern for the cleric's safety.
"Turkey is a good, old friend," he said. "Trusting that, we have no hesitations to travel in Turkey."
Al-Sadr is widely thought to be based in Iran's holy city of Qom.
Turkey, which has an Islamic-oriented government and a secular constitution, has held talks with a variety of groups in Iraq in an effort to help establish stability there. Last year, it also hosted indirect talks between Israel and Syria, and President Barack Obama seeks its help in stabilizing Afghanistan.