World

Three U.S. Troops Killed In Iraq

August 9, 2005 / 8:27 AM EDT / CBS/AP

On Sunday, the U.S. military said that two U.S. soldiers had been killed by a roadside bomb in central Samarra. The Saturday evening attack left three others injured.

The military also confirmed a third weekend death of an American serving in Iraq. A Marine died yesterday in a suicide car bombing west of Baghdad.

Since August first, at least 30 American service members have died in Iraq.

The news came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the insurgency in Iraq is losing steam as a political force.

In an article appearing on Time magazine's Web site, Rice says it's easier to see violence and suicide bombings than what she calls the "rather quiet political progress."

Rice's article comes as Democratic lawmakers warn that escalating violence is jeopardizing plans to bring some troops home.

Pentagon officials have been planning recently for a gradual withdrawal beginning early next year. But that drawdown is not unconditional. It depends on whether Iraqi political goals are met and the insurgency is under control.

In other recent developments:

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday in southern Baghdad, hospital officials said. The soldiers, who were in civilian clothing, were gunned down as they were heading to work, said Dr. Muhannad Jawad of Yarmouk Hospital. A fourth soldier was injured in the morning attack in the southern neighborhood of Saydida, he said.

The U.S. command said an American soldier assigned to a unit in the northern city of Mosul was killed in action Thursday "during a terrorist attack" there. No further details were given.

U.S. and Iraqi troops repelled a series of coordinated insurgent attacks in southern Baghdad, killing six rebels and capturing 12, the U.S. military said Saturday. There were no U.S. casualties, the command said.

The fighting began about 8 p.m. Friday when insurgents attacked an Iraqi army position with mortar rounds and small-arms fire, the command said. U.S. attack helicopters engaged the insurgents with rockets and gunfire.

At nearly the same time, a suicide attacker drove a truck loaded with explosives into a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint, killing an Iraqi soldier.

A suicide car bomber tried to attack another Iraqi position in the area, but a U.S. tank fired and hit the car, killing the driver and causing the car bomb to explode prematurely, the U.S. command said. Iraqi police said three bystanders were wounded.

Minutes later, insurgents at a fourth location fired two rocket-propelled grenades and a mortar round at another Iraqi army post in south Baghdad. None of the rounds caused any damage, the U.S. statement said.

Over the next two hours, insurgents tried to regroup for further attacks on the two Iraqi army posts but were driven off by U.S. and Iraqi fire, the statement added.

"The enemy came to fight us with no success," said Maj. Liston Edge of Kennesaw, Ga., an operations officer with the 48th Brigade Combat Team.

Also Saturday, the U.S. command said troops from the 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment arrested 41 suspected insurgents, including three foreign fighters, in raids west of Baghdad airport two days ago.

A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle at a police checkpoint north of Hillah, in Babil province south of the capital, killing two policemen and wounding two others, provincial police reported.

In the political arena, Sunni Arab members of the committee drafting Iraq's new constitution rejected Kurdish demands for a federal state Saturday, saying such a change should not be implemented during foreign military occupation and an unstable security situation.

The proposal to put off consideration of federalism came a day before Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political leaders were scheduled to meet to try to thrash out differences on that and other sensitive issues like Iraq's identity, the role of Islam and the distribution of wealth.

The committee is rushing to complete the draft in order to meet an Aug. 15 deadline for parliamentary approval.

Sunni members of the constitution committee feel federalism should be discussed in the future when there is a parliament that represents all Iraqis, member Kamal Hamdan said, referring to the current National Assembly that has only 17 Sunni Arabs among its 275 legislators.

"The proposal rejects federalism at the present time because it is difficult to implement it when the country is occupied and the security situation is unstable," Hamdan said.

Most Kurds and some Shiites are for a federal system, but Sunni Arabs have opposed the idea, fearing it could lead to the breakup of Iraq. On Thursday, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said that "the Kurdish people have the right to secede."

Saturday's proposal by Sunni Arabs seemed to arise from their fear that the predominantly Kurdish and Shiite parliament would easily approve federalism.

Sunni Arabs, who many of them boycotted the Jan. 30 election following calls by some of their leaders and threats by insurgents, are expected to participate in bigger numbers in the mid-October constitutional referendum and in parliamentary elections at the end of the year.

In a statement Saturday, al Qaeda in Iraq warned Sunni Arabs that voting in the Oct. 15 referendum was tantamount to rejecting Islam.

Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the 71-member constitution panel, said the Sunni proposal suggests that pending a final decision on federalism, decentralized administrations be set up for each province that would work closely with the central government in Baghdad.

He added that the northern Kurdish provinces of Irbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dahuk would continue running their affairs as they have since 1991 when they established an autonomous region.

In an Internet posting Saturday, al Qaeda's wing in Iraq warned Sunni Arabs that supporting the constitution was no less than abandoning Islam and that "voting for the constitution is tantamount to raising the flag of the crusaders on the land."

"Drafting the constitution means believing that the religion of Islam is incomplete," the statement said. "Those who call on you to participate in the constitution vote have not accepted Islam as a religion."