3 US soilders killed in rocket attack
BAGHDAD (AP) - March 12, 2008 With the overall U.S. military death toll in Iraq nearing 4,000,
the latest killings mark a significant rise in deadly attacks
against Americans.
At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the
beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count.
The figure includes eight military civilians.
Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, told The
Associated Press that three soldiers were killed Wednesday in a
rocket attack on Combat Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah, about 200
miles southeast of Baghdad. Two other soldiers were wounded.
The attack came a day after an American soldier died when a
roadside bomb hit his patrol near Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of
Baghdad.
Eight soldiers were killed in a pair of bomb attacks on Monday,
the heaviest single day of U.S. casualties since September.
Three of those soldiers died in a roadside bombing in Diyala, a
violent province where al-Qaida in /*Iraq*/ has been active.
The five others were killed while on foot patrol in central
Baghdad. A suicide bomber approached them and detonated his
explosives vest. Three Americans and an Iraqi interpreter were
wounded.
The latest deaths came as a group of Iraqi tribal leaders,
former politicians and intellectuals appealed Wednesday to the
United Nations to take control of Iraq in a move they say would
help U.S. troops leave the beleaguered country.
Both the Bush administration and the Baghdad government are
unlikely to endorse the request, which was addressed to U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and delivered to the Cairo offices of
the organization.
"We believe that the only opportunity left for Iraq to be saved
from a dark, but not inevitable future, is to engage the
international community represented by the United Nations," the
letter said. "Such a step will allow the American troops to leave
and the occupation to be brought to its end."
The group's coordinators include Adeeb al-Jadir, Ahmed
Al-Haboubi and Nouri Abdel Razak Hussein, politicians overthrown in
1968 when Saddam Hussein's Baath party came to power and long part
of the liberal anti-regime opposition prior to the U.S.-led
invasion in 2003.
The U.N. dramatically curtailed its operations in Iraq after an
August 2003 suicide attack killed its representative and scores of
others. The United States has been pushing for an expanded U.N.
role in Iraq but that did not include supervising the country.
The Iraqi group said the world body should supervise a new
security plan to restore order during a transitional period and
prepare for new elections of a government to replace Nouri
al-Maliki's troubled cabinet.
Representatives for the campaign will travel to the U.N.
headquarters in New York to seek support from key members, said
al-Haboubi, a former government minister.
"We are also ready to discuss our proposals with U.S.
officials," he said.
The men said the petition was signed by dozens of Iraqi
dignitaries and they had scores of supporters in Iraq who preferred
to rename anonymous for know to avoid harassment.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government on Wednesday announced a
committee formed to explore ways citizens could sue U.S. forces
involved in "unjustified killings," according to the prime
minister's office.
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for
comment.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. military acknowledged that a roadside
bomb targeting a passing U.S. convoy had struck near a passenger
bus, a day after initially claiming no one died in the attack.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner could not
confirm the number of casualties, but said no U.S. forces were
involved in any gunfire that followed.
"We are still working with Iraqi security forces, and those now
investigating the detailed circumstances of that attack, to learn
whatever else we can," Bergner said.
Dr. Hadi Badr al-Riyahi, head of the Nasiriyah provincial health
directorate, confirmed that the attack on the bus traveling from
Najaf to Basra killed 16 civilians and wounded 20 about 50 miles
south of Nasiriyah.
At the time of the attack, a local policeman and the assistant
bus driver also said 16 people were killed on the bus, which was
riddled with holes that appeared to be caused by shrapnel or
bullets.
On Tuesday, violence reportedly killed a total of at least 42
people across Iraq. The sudden spike comes in the wake of a 60
percent drop in attacks across the country since June, according to
U.S. military figures.
According to an AP count, at the height of unrest from November
2006 to August 2007, on average approximately 65 Iraqis died each
day as a result of violence. As conditions improved, the daily
death toll steadily declined. It reached its lowest point in more
than two years on January 2008, when on average 20 Iraqis died each
day.
Those numbers have since jumped. In February, approximately 26
Iraqis died each day as a result of violence, and so far in March,
that number is up to 39 daily. These figures reflect the months in
which people were found, and not necessarily - in the case of mass
graves - the months in which they were killed.
---
Associated Press Writer Salah Nasrawi in Cairo, Egypt
contributed to this report.