Seraphim
09-12-2003, 12:35 AM
http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?vts=091120032120
Video on link
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept. 11 — Attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad Thursday, touching off an intense firefight that left at least one American soldier wounded, the military said. Tanks and other vehicles from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment came under attack in Fallujah, part of the dangerous “Sunni Triangle” region.
OTHER “U.S. FORCES responding to the scene came under fire and returned fire at houses nearby,” U.S. Army Capt. Jeff Fitzgibbons, coalition spokesman in Baghdad, told The Associated Press.
One U.S. soldier was wounded, said Fitzgibbons and a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity. There was no information regarding casualties among attackers.
Two U.S. military trucks were also destroyed during the fighting along Highway 10, the officials said.
Associated Press Television News pictures from Khaldia, 20 miles west of the city of Fallujah, showed a burning tank transport truck, a burning five-ton truck and at least one burning Humvee.
LOCALS GATHER
Kanaan Ali Ibrahim, a witness, said the convoy was moving from Habaniya to Ramadi when Iraqi mujahedeen ambushed it with rocket-propelled grenades.
A small crowd gathered at the scene of the attack and began shouting jubilantly “Allahu Akbar!,” or “God is great,” and “Oh, Iraq, we sacrifice our lives and blood for you.”
An Abrams tank could be seen on the APTN video, and there was the sound of a prolonged gunbattle, with the shooting appearing to be coming mainly from the tank and other heavy guns. The Iraqi guerrillas who carry out such ambushes normally carry only Kalashnikov automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The Fallujah region has been one of the most dangerous for U.S. soldiers. The triangle is the region north and west of Baghdad where support for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein runs strongest.
While details of the firefight could not be confirmed, the U.S. Central Command said a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday near Balad, Iraq, when a truck tire he was changing exploded. Two others were slightly injured.
NORTHERN IRAQ ATTACK
The reported Fallujah attack followed a suicide bombing Wednesday outside U.S. intelligence headquarters in Irbil in northern Iraq, which killed three Iraqis and wounded dozens of other people, including four Americans, U.S. and Kurdish officials said.
Also, a U.S. soldier was killed while trying to detonate a roadside bomb Wednesday in west Baghdad, the second death among U.S. forces in Iraq in less than 24 hours.
A Kurdish security official blamed the al-Qaida terrorist network for the attack in Irbil but gave no reason for that assessment.
There have been no claims of responsibility, but Ansar al-Islam, an organization with suspected ties to al-Qaida, was formerly based near Sulaymaniyah, about 30 miles east of Irbil near the Iranian border.
U.S. jets bombed Ansar headquarters during the war, and surviving members were thought to have fled to Iran. Many are believed to have returned to Iraq.
Video on link
FALLUJAH, Iraq, Sept. 11 — Attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at a U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad Thursday, touching off an intense firefight that left at least one American soldier wounded, the military said. Tanks and other vehicles from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment came under attack in Fallujah, part of the dangerous “Sunni Triangle” region.
OTHER “U.S. FORCES responding to the scene came under fire and returned fire at houses nearby,” U.S. Army Capt. Jeff Fitzgibbons, coalition spokesman in Baghdad, told The Associated Press.
One U.S. soldier was wounded, said Fitzgibbons and a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity. There was no information regarding casualties among attackers.
Two U.S. military trucks were also destroyed during the fighting along Highway 10, the officials said.
Associated Press Television News pictures from Khaldia, 20 miles west of the city of Fallujah, showed a burning tank transport truck, a burning five-ton truck and at least one burning Humvee.
LOCALS GATHER
Kanaan Ali Ibrahim, a witness, said the convoy was moving from Habaniya to Ramadi when Iraqi mujahedeen ambushed it with rocket-propelled grenades.
A small crowd gathered at the scene of the attack and began shouting jubilantly “Allahu Akbar!,” or “God is great,” and “Oh, Iraq, we sacrifice our lives and blood for you.”
An Abrams tank could be seen on the APTN video, and there was the sound of a prolonged gunbattle, with the shooting appearing to be coming mainly from the tank and other heavy guns. The Iraqi guerrillas who carry out such ambushes normally carry only Kalashnikov automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The Fallujah region has been one of the most dangerous for U.S. soldiers. The triangle is the region north and west of Baghdad where support for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein runs strongest.
While details of the firefight could not be confirmed, the U.S. Central Command said a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday near Balad, Iraq, when a truck tire he was changing exploded. Two others were slightly injured.
NORTHERN IRAQ ATTACK
The reported Fallujah attack followed a suicide bombing Wednesday outside U.S. intelligence headquarters in Irbil in northern Iraq, which killed three Iraqis and wounded dozens of other people, including four Americans, U.S. and Kurdish officials said.
Also, a U.S. soldier was killed while trying to detonate a roadside bomb Wednesday in west Baghdad, the second death among U.S. forces in Iraq in less than 24 hours.
A Kurdish security official blamed the al-Qaida terrorist network for the attack in Irbil but gave no reason for that assessment.
There have been no claims of responsibility, but Ansar al-Islam, an organization with suspected ties to al-Qaida, was formerly based near Sulaymaniyah, about 30 miles east of Irbil near the Iranian border.
U.S. jets bombed Ansar headquarters during the war, and surviving members were thought to have fled to Iran. Many are believed to have returned to Iraq.