Another U.S. Marine Killed In Iraq
Another American Marine was killed in action in a city in the Euphrates River valley where 14 U.S. Marines died in the deadliest roadside bombing suffered by U.S. forces in the Iraq war, the U.S. military said.
At least nine Iraqi security personnel were also killed in scattered attacks Thursday, including a car bombing which targeted members of a radical Shiite militia visiting a religious shrine.
The latest Marine casualty was reported from Ramadi, the capital of explosive Anbar province 70 miles west. The Marine, whose name was not released, was killed by small arms fire Wednesday — the same day that 14 Marines and an Iraqi civilian translator died in a huge bombing near Haditha.
That brought to at least 24 the number of Marines killed over the last week in along the Euphrates Valley in one of the bloodiest periods for U.S. forces in months. In all, at least 45 American service members have died in Iraq since July 24 — all but two in combat.
In other recent developments:
The Marines killed Wednesday were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, and attached to the Regimental Combat Team-2. Nine of them were from a single smaller unit in Columbus. A civilian translator also was killed and one Marine was wounded.
They were from the same battalion that lost six members of a sniper team in an attack Monday that was claimed by the Islamic extremist Ansar al-Sunnah Army.
Reacting to the surge in U.S. casualties in Iraq, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., told CBS News' The Early Show, "We've made some significant miscalculations in policy."
Biden said "the options are fewer than they were a year ago. We're in a very tough spot over there. We have too few troops in a place that needs a heck of a lot more security. It's going to get tougher before it gets easier."
On Wednesday, President Bush lamented the deaths of the 14 Marines, calling the attack a "grim reminder" America is still at war.
"These terrorists and insurgents will use brutal tactics because they're trying to shake the will of the United States of America. They want us to retreat," Mr. Bush told some 2,000 lawmakers, business leaders and public policy experts in Grapevine, Texas.
A Marine officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the attack occurred as troops were traveling in an armored amphibious vehicle in preparation for an assault in a village outside Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Suddenly, a thunderous explosion rang out and the vehicle flipped over in a fireball, he said. The surviving Marine scrambled from beneath the overturned vehicle, the officer said.
Marines often criticize the protection provided by their armored amphibious vehicles, or AAVs, which are designed to be dropped from ships for coastal assaults. The vehicles have armor plating that is lighter than those used by the Army.
American commanders have also warned that while insurgent bombings have been declining in number, they have been increasing in power and sophistication. Villagers reached by telephone said the blast blew the vehicle into pieces, and a large crater could be seen nearby.
"This is a very lethal and unfortunately very adaptable enemy we are faced with," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, a Pentagon staff officer and former commander of U.S. forces in Mosul.
At least 1,821 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
On Wednesday, the Web site of the Ansar al-Sunnah Army posted photographs from Monday's attack on the Marine sniper team. One picture shows a bloody, battered body wearing Marine camouflage trousers. Another shows two hooded gunmen standing in front of several rifles, apparently taken from dead Marines.
In a statement accompanying the photos, Ansar al-Sunnah said the insurgents lured the Marines out of their base and ambushed them.
"The intention was to capture them alive, but they opened fire on the mujahedeen," the statement said. "The heroes slaughtered those who were still alive ... except for one, who begged the mujahedeen for his life. They captured him and he is in our hands."
At the Pentagon, Ham said no Marines were missing and believed captured.
In Brook Park, the Cleveland suburb where the battalion was based, businesses tied red, white and blue ribbons on their doors, and some had American flags hanging in the windows. A bouquet of red roses was placed at the gate of the Marine headquarters, an old brick schoolhouse.
Among the six killed Monday was Cpl. Jeffrey A. Boskovitch, 25, of North Royalton, Ohio, an aspiring police officer who planned to set a wedding date with his girlfriend when he returned home this fall.
A New York City police officer serving in the Army Reserve was shot and killed Tuesday by a sniper while guarding prisoners at the Camp Victory military base, outside Baghdad, city officials said Wednesday. Staff Sgt. James McNaughton, 27, was the first member of the police force to be killed in action in Iraq.