Seven Marines killed in suicide bomb attack

Published 9:00 pm Monday, September 6, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide car-bomber struck a military convoy near the city of Fallujah on Monday, killing seven Marines in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces since April.

Three members of the Iraqi National Guard also were killed during the bombing outside Fallujah, in the Muslim region that has become a flashpoint during Iraq’s 16-month-old insurgency against the U.S.-led occupation.

Elsewhere, one American soldier was killed and another wounded during an attack on a convoy near the Iraqi capital, the U.S. military said today. The convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device at around 11:45 p.m. Monday, the military said in a statement, without providing further details.

The seven fatalities near Fallujah are the largest number of U.S. troops killed in a single attack since April 29, when eight soldiers died in another car-bomb attack. That assault was in an area south of Baghdad that also has become hub for insurgent activities, including roadside attacks and kidnappings.

The Marines were members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, from Camp Pendleton, Calif.

The U.S. military pulled back from Fallujah in April, after surrounding the city and engaging in days of bloody clashes. American officials agreed to put an Iraqi force, called the Fallujah Brigade, in control of security inside the city, which is 30 miles west of Baghdad.

But that group has not worked out as planned and is widely believed to be acting in concert with the insurgency, which is made up of foreign and local Islamic militants and fighters loyal to Saddam Hussein.

The latest deaths brought the unofficial tally of the number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since the start of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 to about 991. Fifteen servicemen have died during the first six days of September.

Associated Press

A destroyed vehicle remains at the site of a massive car bombing Monday on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq.