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September 19, 2003
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Friday
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Rajab 21, 1424
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Eight US soldiers feared dead in Iraq
KHALDIYAH, Sept 18: A US convoy took heavy casualties in an ambush here on Thursday, as Iraq erupted in a spate of anti-US attacks after the release of another purported message from Saddam Hussein.
No official toll was available from the mid-afternoon incident, but witnesses reported seeing between four and eight badly burned US soldiers pulled out of one military vehicle engulfed in flames.
The attacks in Khaldiyah, 80kms west of Baghdad, occurred a day after US soldiers killed an Iraqi teenager and wounded six other people in nearby Fallujah after becoming spooked by celebratory gunfire at a wedding.
That incident further fuelled tensions in the town, where US soldiers shot dead nine Iraqi security officials last Friday in a “friendly fire” incident.
The Dubai-based Al Arabiya television said eight Americans were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in Khaldiyah and was pelted with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) as its limped to a nearby base.
The attack was the latest in a flashpoint area west of Baghdad. It came amid a series of assaults on US troops around the country after release on Wednesday of an alleged tape by Saddam exhorting Iraqis to renewed resistance.
The US military said two soldiers were wounded in an attack near the town of Ramadi, west of Khaldiyah, but would not confirm reports of heavy casualties in the same area.
US soldiers also shot up a car belonging to the US news agency, Associated Press, when its reporters tried to film a burning vehicle in Khaldiyah. The two reporters and driver, all Iraqis, were unhurt.
Some 300 Iraqi demonstrators celebrated the attack on the convoy, brandishing bits of American vehicles, hoisting portraits of Saddam and pledging to die for the former president.
“With our blood, with our soul, we will sacrifice for you O Saddam” and “Saddam is the glory of my country,” they chanted. Others danced joyously around at least two US vehicles swallowed by flames and thick black smoke.—AFP
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