Post by Moses on Jun 11, 2005 6:13:01 GMT -5
toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050611/NEWS28/506110417
Article published June 11, 2005
3 Ohioans among 5 killed in Iraq
FROM THE BLADE'S WIRE SERVICES
BAGHDAD - Three Ohio Marines from an Akron-based based unit were among five servicemen killed in the same attack in western Iraq, the Department of Defense said yesterday.
Lance Cpl. Thomas O. Keeling, 23, of Strongsville; Lance Cpl. Devon P. Seymour, 21, of St. Louisville, and Cpl. Brad D. Squires, 26, Middleburg Heights, died in a roadside bombing Thursday while conducting combat operations near the volatile Sunni town of Haqlaniyah, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad.
They were assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
A Marine from Idaho and another from Washington state also died in the attack, the military said.
Their deaths brought to at least 1,689 the number of U.S. military members killed in Iraq since the war began in March, 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, authorities found 21 bodies yesterday near the Syrian border, where American and Iraqi troops bore down in two recent major operations aimed at crushing a tenacious insurgency.
The victims, thought to be missing Iraqi soldiers, were shot repeatedly in the head and found blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs. Three were beheaded.
The killings were a clear sign of the profound difficulties faced by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Anbar province around the dusty, lawless frontier town of Qaim, and their inability to seal the porous desert border with Syria despite major efforts to boost their military presence in the area.
Also yesterday, a car bomb killed four men and wounded nine as they sat outside a restaurant in Baghdad.
The 21 Iraqi bodies were found near Qaim, 80 miles west of Haqlaniyah, along a highway that meanders along the Euphrates River and into Syria. The bodies were in three locations, haphazardly dumped by the roadside in a gravel pit and in sand flats. U.S. military intelligence officials believe the Qaim area sits at the crossroads of a major route used by groups such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq to smuggle foreign fighters into the country.
The bodies were thought to be those of off-duty Iraqi soldiers who left their base near Qaim two days earlier in civilian clothes aboard two minivans, headed to Baghdad for a vacation.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed in an Internet posting that it abducted 36 Iraqi soldiers in western Iraq on Wednesday, and threatened to kill them unless the Iraqi government released "Muslim women" from prison.
Marines carried out two major operations in the area last month, killing 125 insurgents in the first campaign and 14 in the second.
As part of its effort to increase its presence, the Iraqi army boosted the number of soldiers at the frontier post of Akashat, near Qaim, from about 100 before Operation Matador to nearly 750 now. Akashat is where the missing soldiers were based.
Also yesterday, gunmen killed the dean of the police academy in the southern city of Basra, and an Iraqi soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the central city of Mashru.
The U.S. Army also announced that it is launching a criminal investigation into the deaths of two soldiers in the New York Army National Guard in what initially was believed to be a mortar attack.
An examination by explosives experts determined the blast pattern was inconsistent with a mortar attack, and the incident is now being investigated by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, Central Command announced."The evidence is that this was not a combat attack or incident," said Col. Bill Buckner, spokesman for the Multi-National Corps in Iraq.
The slain officers - Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, 30, and Lt. Louis E. Allen, 39 - had been living in a palace in Tikrit, on the grounds of a sprawling compound that Saddam Hussein had built along the Tigris River.
The U.S. Army has occupied the compound, Forward Operating Base Danger, since shortly after the war began in 2003.
Other soldiers living in the palace reported hearing four explosions around 10 p.m. Tuesday. They rushed to the men, but both died of their injuries.
Article published June 11, 2005
3 Ohioans among 5 killed in Iraq
FROM THE BLADE'S WIRE SERVICES
BAGHDAD - Three Ohio Marines from an Akron-based based unit were among five servicemen killed in the same attack in western Iraq, the Department of Defense said yesterday.
Lance Cpl. Thomas O. Keeling, 23, of Strongsville; Lance Cpl. Devon P. Seymour, 21, of St. Louisville, and Cpl. Brad D. Squires, 26, Middleburg Heights, died in a roadside bombing Thursday while conducting combat operations near the volatile Sunni town of Haqlaniyah, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad.
They were assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.
A Marine from Idaho and another from Washington state also died in the attack, the military said.
Their deaths brought to at least 1,689 the number of U.S. military members killed in Iraq since the war began in March, 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, authorities found 21 bodies yesterday near the Syrian border, where American and Iraqi troops bore down in two recent major operations aimed at crushing a tenacious insurgency.
The victims, thought to be missing Iraqi soldiers, were shot repeatedly in the head and found blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs. Three were beheaded.
The killings were a clear sign of the profound difficulties faced by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Anbar province around the dusty, lawless frontier town of Qaim, and their inability to seal the porous desert border with Syria despite major efforts to boost their military presence in the area.
Also yesterday, a car bomb killed four men and wounded nine as they sat outside a restaurant in Baghdad.
The 21 Iraqi bodies were found near Qaim, 80 miles west of Haqlaniyah, along a highway that meanders along the Euphrates River and into Syria. The bodies were in three locations, haphazardly dumped by the roadside in a gravel pit and in sand flats. U.S. military intelligence officials believe the Qaim area sits at the crossroads of a major route used by groups such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq to smuggle foreign fighters into the country.
The bodies were thought to be those of off-duty Iraqi soldiers who left their base near Qaim two days earlier in civilian clothes aboard two minivans, headed to Baghdad for a vacation.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed in an Internet posting that it abducted 36 Iraqi soldiers in western Iraq on Wednesday, and threatened to kill them unless the Iraqi government released "Muslim women" from prison.
Marines carried out two major operations in the area last month, killing 125 insurgents in the first campaign and 14 in the second.
As part of its effort to increase its presence, the Iraqi army boosted the number of soldiers at the frontier post of Akashat, near Qaim, from about 100 before Operation Matador to nearly 750 now. Akashat is where the missing soldiers were based.
Also yesterday, gunmen killed the dean of the police academy in the southern city of Basra, and an Iraqi soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the central city of Mashru.
The U.S. Army also announced that it is launching a criminal investigation into the deaths of two soldiers in the New York Army National Guard in what initially was believed to be a mortar attack.
An examination by explosives experts determined the blast pattern was inconsistent with a mortar attack, and the incident is now being investigated by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, Central Command announced."The evidence is that this was not a combat attack or incident," said Col. Bill Buckner, spokesman for the Multi-National Corps in Iraq.
The slain officers - Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, 30, and Lt. Louis E. Allen, 39 - had been living in a palace in Tikrit, on the grounds of a sprawling compound that Saddam Hussein had built along the Tigris River.
The U.S. Army has occupied the compound, Forward Operating Base Danger, since shortly after the war began in 2003.
Other soldiers living in the palace reported hearing four explosions around 10 p.m. Tuesday. They rushed to the men, but both died of their injuries.