World

Road Bomb Kills 3 U.S. Soldiers

November 16, 2005 / 10:25 AM EST / CBS/AP

As U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through most of an insurgent stronghold near the Syrian border on Tuesday, three U.S. Army soldiers were killed today in a roadside bombing near Baghdad, the U.S. Command said.

In Syria-border raids, U.S. troops encountered pockets of fierce resistance, destroying five unexploded car bombs and killing at least 30 guerrilla fighters, the U.S. command reported.

Separately, three U.S. Marines died during the last two days of the operation to clear the town of Obeidi, "Operation Steel Curtain," a military statement said. More than 80 insurgents have been killed, mostly in airstrikes, in the same period, it said.

Also Tuesday, Iraq's prime minister acknowledged that 173 Iraqi detainees — malnourished and showing signs of torture — were found at an Interior Ministry detention center seized by U.S. forces in the heart of the capital. Sunnis have long complained of such abuse by the Shiite-controlled ministry.

The revelation by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was deeply embarrassing to the Shiite-led government as critics in the United States and Britain question the U.S. strategy for building democracy in a land wracked by insurgency, terrorism and rising sectarian tension.

In related developments:

In attacks aimed at Iraqi police Tuesday, insurgents opened fire on a police patrol in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, killing three, and a roadside bomb a few miles away killed two more police officers, Col. Shirzad Mursi said. The son of an Iraqi contractor was also killed, he added.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded while police gathered for a meeting, police Capt. Haider Ibrahim said. Two officers and two other people were killed, he said, and seven people were injured, including two children who were selling vegetables nearby.

The Republican-controlled Senate easily defeated a Democratic attempt on Tuesday to put pressure on President Bush to outline a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq. It then overwhelmingly endorsed a weaker statement calling on the administration to explain its Iraq policy. Senators also voted to endorse the Bush administration's military tribunals for prosecuting foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but to allow the detainees to appeal their detention status and punishments to a federal court.

Arab League officials said 100 prominent Iraqis have been invited to a weekend meeting in Egypt to pave the way for a full-blown conference, probably to be held early next year in Iraq. The preliminary meeting is not expected to include representatives of insurgent groups or Saddam Hussein loyalists.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday took back his decision to fire the only official dismissed in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, an embarrassing reversal as the world body tries to move on from a scandal that severely damaged its reputation. The move was only a partial victory for Joseph Stephanides, fired May 31 after an outside inquiry found he showed a preference for one bidder over another for a 1996 oil-for-food contract. The United Nations still claims that he violated U.N. rules, and he said he would appeal.

The three troop deaths in Baghdad brings the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war to at least 2,074, according to an Associated Press count.

"Intelligence reports indicate that the strong resistance to the Iraqi and coalition push into the city is due in large part to the fact that insurgents believe they are trapped and have nowhere else to go," the military report said of the border operation. "Several detainees were captured trying to sneak out of the area by crawling among a flock of sheep."

The U.S.-Iraqi attack on Obeidi was the latest stage of an offensive to clear al Qaeda-led insurgents from towns and cities in the Euphrates River valley near the border with Syria and seal off an infiltration route for foreign fighters sneaking into Iraq.

"Iraqi and coalition forces continue to clear the city house-by-house, occasionally encountering buildings that are rigged with explosives," the U.S. statement said. It said many weapons caches were seized, including several that contained suicide vests and bomb-making materials.

Earlier this month, U.S. and Iraqi forces overran two other towns in the area — Husaybah and Karabilah. The Americans and their Iraqi allies plan to establish a long-term presence to prevent insurgents from returning.

One Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division died Tuesday from wounds incurred from a bomb that exploded Monday. Another Marine from the same unit died Monday from a roadside bomb in Obeidi, and a third Marine from the unit was killed by small arms fire Monday, the military said.

The three soldiers who died Tuesday were from the Army's Task Force Baghdad and were killed northwest of the capital, the military said.

That brought to at least 2,074 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,613 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military civilians.

U.S. officials have said the Euphrates Valley campaign is also aimed at encouraging Sunni Arabs to vote in the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections without fear of insurgent reprisals. The Bush administration hopes a successful election will encourage many in the Sunni community to abandon the insurgency.

Sunni leaders have repeatedly complained that the Shiite-led government has neglected their interests and that security forces have abused Sunnis.

Al-Jaafari's comments about the possible prisoner abuse came a day after an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said an investigation will be opened into allegations that Interior Ministry officers tortured suspects detained in connection with the insurgency.

"I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an Interior Ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished. There is also some talk that they were subjected to some kind of torture," al-Jaafari told reporters.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said U.S. and Iraqi forces went into the facility in Baghdad suspecting that individuals there might not have been appropriately handled or managed, and "they found things that concerned them."