Post by ErinB on Mar 31, 2004 20:03:26 GMT -5
It just keeps getting worse and worse...why don't they just release SH and say, "Here you go!" 
Insurgents kill four American contractors, five US soldiers in Iraq
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040331/ts_afp/iraq_us_040331212102&e=1
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi insurgents killed five US soldiers and four US civilians in separate attacks with violence turning gruesome when angry crowds mutilated the charred remains of two of the victims.
The United States condemned the "horrible" and "appalling" murders but vowed to stay the course despite threats by insurgents to turn the rebellious town of Fallujah into "the cemetery of the Americans".
The soldiers were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb northwest of the US military base in Habbaniya, 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the Iraqi capital, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a press conference in Baghdad.
It is thought to be the worst single incident involving coalition troops since a US military helicopter was downed on January 8 near Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, killing all nine people aboard.
The latest deaths brought to 291 the number of US soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) declared major hostilities over on May 1.
In Fallujah gunmen ambushed two four-wheel-drive vehicles, killing the four American contractors.
Coalition forces were not immediately able to identify the victims and Kimmit, deputy operations commander for the US-led coalition, could only say they were contractors.
Initially a State Department official said at least three were US citizens before confirming that all four were Americans.
"These are horrific attacks by people who are trying to prevent democracy from moving forward," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said: "The United States government is appalled by the horrific attacks and the senseless loss of life that we saw in Iraq (news - web sites) today."
Both McClellan and Ereli said the United States would not be deterred in its goal to restore democracy to Iraq.
"The US government is certainly committed to sticking this through to the end," Ereli said.
The contractors were passing through central Fallujah when they were stopped by a group of armed men who opened fire and set the cars ablaze before fleeing.
What happened afterwards was particularly gruesome.
The two vehicles had burst into flames, and young men threw rocks and stones at the blazing wreckage. One body was seen burning inside one of the cars.
An AFP correspondent on the scene saw two charred bodies dragged from the vehicles, hacked up with shovels and strung by their feet from a nearby bridge, where they were stoned by residents.
Residents shouted: "Down with the occupation, down with America" and "Long live Islam."
"Fallujah will be the cemetery of the Americans," said one man, his face hidden by a scarf.
"Revenge, revenge for Saddam," others shouted, the Iraqi president whose ironfist regime was ended by the US-led war.
One body was headless, and a hand and a leg were strung from an electric pole in the main street of Fallujah, a flashpoint town that has seen frequent attacks against US-led coalition occupying forces.
The bodies were then pulled down and placed on the ground for people to kick and slash with knives.
By early evening, crowds were still celebrating in the streets, with people shooting in the air and distributing candies, an AFP correspondent said.
At one point, some US marines in armored vehicles were seen at the eastern entrance of the town but they later withdrew.
Fallujah lies at the heart of the so-called "Sunni triangle", a hotbed of die-hard opposition to the occupation, where US Marines have been relieving comrades from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Kimmit said a small minority of insurgents were desperately trying to stop Iraq's march toward democracy and progress but would not succeed.
The key to stopping them was obtaining good intelligence, and Iraqis were increasingly helping US-led forces, he said.
US military officials had been warning of a major escalation of violence ahead of the June 30 transfer of power to Iraq.
In the southern port city of Basra, three British soldiers serving in the coalition were wounded by a roadside bomb explosion, a British military spokeswoman told AFP.
In other incidents Wednesday, four policemen and six civilians were wounded in a car bomb explosion in Baquba, north of Baghdad, police said.
In the central Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, about 200 students demonstrated outside city hall to protest recent police "repressive acts".
And in Baghdad, several thousand angry Iraqis demonstrated for the fourth consecutive day to protest a decision by the US-led coalition to shut down the weekly newspaper of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
The coalition said the weekly was inciting violence, a charge denied by Sadr.
Insurgents kill four American contractors, five US soldiers in Iraq
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040331/ts_afp/iraq_us_040331212102&e=1
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi insurgents killed five US soldiers and four US civilians in separate attacks with violence turning gruesome when angry crowds mutilated the charred remains of two of the victims.
The United States condemned the "horrible" and "appalling" murders but vowed to stay the course despite threats by insurgents to turn the rebellious town of Fallujah into "the cemetery of the Americans".
The soldiers were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb northwest of the US military base in Habbaniya, 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the Iraqi capital, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a press conference in Baghdad.
It is thought to be the worst single incident involving coalition troops since a US military helicopter was downed on January 8 near Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, killing all nine people aboard.
The latest deaths brought to 291 the number of US soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) declared major hostilities over on May 1.
In Fallujah gunmen ambushed two four-wheel-drive vehicles, killing the four American contractors.
Coalition forces were not immediately able to identify the victims and Kimmit, deputy operations commander for the US-led coalition, could only say they were contractors.
Initially a State Department official said at least three were US citizens before confirming that all four were Americans.
"These are horrific attacks by people who are trying to prevent democracy from moving forward," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said: "The United States government is appalled by the horrific attacks and the senseless loss of life that we saw in Iraq (news - web sites) today."
Both McClellan and Ereli said the United States would not be deterred in its goal to restore democracy to Iraq.
"The US government is certainly committed to sticking this through to the end," Ereli said.
The contractors were passing through central Fallujah when they were stopped by a group of armed men who opened fire and set the cars ablaze before fleeing.
What happened afterwards was particularly gruesome.
The two vehicles had burst into flames, and young men threw rocks and stones at the blazing wreckage. One body was seen burning inside one of the cars.
An AFP correspondent on the scene saw two charred bodies dragged from the vehicles, hacked up with shovels and strung by their feet from a nearby bridge, where they were stoned by residents.
Residents shouted: "Down with the occupation, down with America" and "Long live Islam."
"Fallujah will be the cemetery of the Americans," said one man, his face hidden by a scarf.
"Revenge, revenge for Saddam," others shouted, the Iraqi president whose ironfist regime was ended by the US-led war.
One body was headless, and a hand and a leg were strung from an electric pole in the main street of Fallujah, a flashpoint town that has seen frequent attacks against US-led coalition occupying forces.
The bodies were then pulled down and placed on the ground for people to kick and slash with knives.
By early evening, crowds were still celebrating in the streets, with people shooting in the air and distributing candies, an AFP correspondent said.
At one point, some US marines in armored vehicles were seen at the eastern entrance of the town but they later withdrew.
Fallujah lies at the heart of the so-called "Sunni triangle", a hotbed of die-hard opposition to the occupation, where US Marines have been relieving comrades from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.
Kimmit said a small minority of insurgents were desperately trying to stop Iraq's march toward democracy and progress but would not succeed.
The key to stopping them was obtaining good intelligence, and Iraqis were increasingly helping US-led forces, he said.
US military officials had been warning of a major escalation of violence ahead of the June 30 transfer of power to Iraq.
In the southern port city of Basra, three British soldiers serving in the coalition were wounded by a roadside bomb explosion, a British military spokeswoman told AFP.
In other incidents Wednesday, four policemen and six civilians were wounded in a car bomb explosion in Baquba, north of Baghdad, police said.
In the central Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf, about 200 students demonstrated outside city hall to protest recent police "repressive acts".
And in Baghdad, several thousand angry Iraqis demonstrated for the fourth consecutive day to protest a decision by the US-led coalition to shut down the weekly newspaper of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
The coalition said the weekly was inciting violence, a charge denied by Sadr.