The Hindu : 11 killed in heavy clashes near Balad

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

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International

11 killed in heavy clashes near Balad

BALAD (Iraq) july 4. U.S. troops killed 11 Iraqis who ambushed a convoy outside Baghdad on Friday, one of the heaviest clashes yet in the daily grind of attacks on American forces.

The ambush came hours after mortars hit a nearby base, wounding 18 U.S. soldiers. A sniper also shot and killed an American soldier guarding the Baghdad museum, the military said. Meanwhile, the U.S. has put a $25 millions bounty on the former President, Saddam Hussein's head, and U.S. officials say that the mystery over his whereabouts is encouraging anti-U.S. attacks — though they insist the resistance is not centrally organised.

The ambush came on a highway near Balad, 90 km north of Baghdad, when 11 men attacked a convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, the military said. U.S. soldiers fired back, killing all. There were no American casualties. U.S. forces have frequently been ambushed on the roads of central Iraq — usually by small groups of insurgents who fire small arms or grenades then flee.

In another bold attack, four mortar rounds rocked a huge U.S. base near Balad late on Thursday, injuring 18 soldiers, said an officer. Flares and tracer bullets sliced across the night sky after the blasts. Two soldiers were seriously injured, with one undergoing surgery in a hospital located on the base and another evacuated for treatment, the spokesman said.

Others suffered cuts and punctures from flying shrapnel, and nine soldiers went back to duty, he said.

``This is the first time the base was attacked — and the first time we've seen mortars,'' he said. The wounded soldiers belonged to Task Force Iron Horse, a 33,000-member unit that has been conducting raids in central Iraq. On Friday, attackers detonated an explosive on a highway in Baghdad's western outskirts, injuring three passengers in a civilian car and two U.S. soldiers travelling in a Humvee convoy, according to an Associated Press photographer on the scene.

— AP

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