[NYTr] 4 US occupation troops killed in Iraq bombing

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Aug 14, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=VASTR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

4 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq bombing

By DAVID RISING
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Mourners vowed revenge and perseverance Friday at the
funeral of the leader of the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida
militants who was assassinated just 10 days after meeting with
President Bush in Iraq's Anbar province.

In eastern Diyala provice, meanwhile, a bomb exploded near a U.S.
military vehicle on Friday, killing four American soldiers in, the U.S.
command said. They were the first American deaths reported in Iraq
since Monday.

More than 1,500 mourners marched along the highway near the home of
Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who was killed along with two bodyguards and a
driver Thursday by a bomb hidden near his house, just west of Ramadi.

Scores of Iraqi police and U.S. military vehicles lined the route to
protect the procession as it followed the black SUV carrying the
sheik's Iraqi-flag draped coffin.

"We will take our revenge," the mourners chanted along the 10 kilometer
(6 mile) route to Risha's family cemetery, many of them crying. "We
will continue the march of Abu Risha."

Abu Risha was buried one year after the goateed, charismatic,
chain-smoking young sheik organized 25 Sunni Arab clans under the
umbrella of the Anbar Awakening Council, an alliance against al-Qaida
in Iraq, to drive terrorists from sanctuaries where they had flourished
after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

No group claimed responsibility for the assassination, but it was
widely assumed to have been carried out by al-Qaida, which already had
killed four of Abu Risha's brothers and six other relatives for working
with the U.S. military.

U.S. officials credit Abu Risha and allied sheiks with a dramatic
improvement in security in such Anbar flashpoints as Fallujah and
Ramadi after years of American failure to subdue the extremists. U.S.
officials now talk of using the Anbar model to organize tribal fighters
elsewhere in Iraq.

Bush hailed Abu Risha's courage during his short Sept. 3 visit to
al-Asad Air Base, and vowed in his nationally televised address
Thursday night to help others carry on his work.

"Earlier today, one of the brave tribal sheiks who helped lead the
revolt against al-Qaida was murdered," Bush said. "In response, a
fellow Sunni leader declared: "We are determined to strike back and
continue our work." And as they do, they can count on the continued
support of the United States."

Many high-ranking officials were on hand for the funeral, including
Iraq's interior and defense ministers and National Security Adviser
Mouwaffak al-Rubaie.

"We condemn the killing of Abu Risha, but this will not deter us from
helping the people of Anbar - we will support them more than before,"
al-Rubaie declared. "It is a national disaster and a great loss for the
Iraqi people - Abu Risha was the only person to confront al-Qaida in
Anbar."

But in open-air Friday prayers in the streets of Baghdad's Shiite slum
Sadr City, a stronghold of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, imam
Muhanned al-Gharawi told thousands of worshippers that the
assassination was an example of the government's inability to provide
security for Iraq.

"The Iraqi people have lost trust with this government and killings are
still going on - the latest is the assassination of the Anbar Awakening
Council leader," he said. "Everyone is threatened with death in this
country as long as the American Black House is still giving the orders."

In scattered violence around Iraq on Friday, a suicide truck bomb hit a
police checkpoint near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, killing four
policemen, a Beiji police officer said.

South of Baghdad, unidentified gunmen killed three farmers who were
taking their turn guarding a village, police said.

Farther south in the city of Hillah, gunmen attacked the home of Col.
Hussein Ali Hassoon al Khafaji, an Iraqi army battalion commander,
killing a guard and wounding another, police said.

In a helicopter assault mission west of Baghdad, three suspected
insurgents were killed and three American soldiers were injured, the
U.S. command said.

Iraqi soldiers led the raid Thursday on a mosque in Karmah, a town in
Iraq's western Anbar province some 50 miles west of the capital, the
U.S. military said in a statement. The target was a high-ranking
al-Qaida in Iraq leader, believed to be responsible for orchestrating
murders, sniper attacks and the planting of roadside bombs.

During the operation, people fleeing the mosque fired at American
troops - wounding three of them with non-life threatening injuries.
U.S. and Iraqi forces retaliated with ground fire and close air
support, killing three suspected insurgents, the military said.

The military statement did not say whether the targeted al-Qaida figure
was among the dead.

Troops also discovered four rockets, roadside bomb-making materials and
50-caliber ammunition rounds inside the mosque, the statement said.

The U.S. command also released more details on the deadly Sept. 10
accident in Baghdad that killed seven soldiers, including two sergeants
who helped write a New York Times op-ed article sharply critical of the
Pentagon's assessment of the Iraq war.

Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray were among seven NCOs who wrote
the Aug. 19 piece entitled "The War As We Saw It" expressing doubts
about American gains in Iraq.

Another co-author, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Murphy, was shot in the head while
the article was being written. The Army Ranger and reconnaissance team
leader flown to a military hospital in the United States and expected
to survive.

The U.S. command said the accident occurred in the Baghdad suburb of
Shula when soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade were
in an armored transport truck on their way back from a raid in which
they had captured three insurgents suspected of attacks on U.S. and
Iraqi soldiers.

"The unit was returning to base after the raid when their vehicle
apparently lost control and fell approximately 50 feet from a highway
overpass," the military said in a statement.

[An Associated Press employee in Ramadi contributed to this report but
his name with withheld for security reasons.]

© 2007 The Associated Press.