BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents pressed their attack on U.S. troops and Iraq’s security forces on Saturday, killing five Iraqi police officers and wounding 14 American soldiers.
A Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Saturday in Anbar province, which contains the battleground cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
As of Saturday, at least 1,287 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The 14 Americans were wounded in separate attacks in northern Iraq. One car bombing and ambush wounded eight soldiers, prompting an American warplane to drop a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent position in Mosul.
“The commanders on the ground felt the attack was heavy enough to call in close air support,” military spokeswoman Capt. Angela Bowman said.
In northern Iraq, a suspected suicide car bomber wounded two U.S. soldiers in Beiji, while two more soldiers were wounded in a car bomb blast near Kirkuk, both north of Baghdad.
Two U.S. soldiers also were wounded by a roadside bomb outside Hawija, near Kirkuk.
Police Col. Najeeb al-Joubouri was gunned down on his way to work on a road outside Beiji. Two more police commanders were shot and killed in Baghdad’s southwestern Saidiyah neighborhood in an early-morning ambush.
In other violence, gunmen shot and killed a Shiite cleric, Salim al-Yaqoubi, near his home in Baghdad, police said.
A second Shiite cleric, Sheik Ammar al-Joubouri, was slain Friday near Mahmoudiya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, while driving to the capital. Al-Joubouri once headed a religious court of followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern holy city of Najaf.
The latest attacks appear to be part of a sweeping intimidation campaign aimed at foiling nationwide parliamentary elections Jan. 30, in part by killing Iraqis who cooperate with the United States -collaborators in the eyes of insurgents.
The guerrillas regard the elections as an effort to legitimize a puppet government that will serve U.S. interests.
Iraq’s government says the vote will go ahead as scheduled, and preparations continued Saturday, with election officials saying candidates from 70 political parties and coalitions have filed so far. The filing deadline is Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman said Saturday that U.S. commanders welcomed news that the Pentagon intended to speed up production of armored Humvees.
The Army said Friday it was negotiating with an armor manufacturer, Florida-based Armor Holdings Inc., to accelerate production of upgraded M1114, or Level 1, Humvees. The company said it could boost monthly production from 450 vehicles to 550 in February or March.
“Commanders are looking for any opportunity to increase force protection for the sake of their troops,” said Maj. Neal O’Brien, spokesman for the Tikrit-based 1st Infantry Division.
Associated Press
Although wounded, Army Staff Sgt. Shannon Kay of 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment directs his men Saturday after they were attacked in a car bombing in Mosul, Iraq.
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