The two 82nd Airborne Division soldiers died when a homemade bomb
exploded beside their vehicle about 8:30 a.m. in Fallujah, a center of
Sunni Muslim resistance 40 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.
Their deaths brought to 34 the number of American soldiers who have
died in Iraq (news
- web
sites) this month as resistance escalated during the Islamic holy
month of Ramadan.
In Geneva, meanwhile, the international Red Cross said Saturday it was
temporarily closing its offices in Baghdad and Basra because of security.
The Red Cross had planned to cut back on foreign staff after the Oct. 27
truck-bombing at its Baghdad office but had planned to keep the offices
open with reduced staff.
"We decided that in view of an extremely dangerous and volatile
situation that we would have to temporarily close our offices in Baghdad
and Basra," said Florian Westphal, spokesman for the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
The Red Cross maintains a staff of about 30 foreign staffers and 600
Iraqis.
In Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, guerrillas fired six mortar
rounds at a police station in the city, Iraqi police said Saturday.
Several shells missed their target and fell on nearby houses, slightly
injuring a resident.
The city, which was once considered to be relatively free of guerrilla
activity, has seen dozens of attacks on U.S. forces in recent weeks,
indicating that the rebellion has spread northward from its original
stronghold in the so-called Sunni Triangle north and west of Baghdad.
Troops in the city recovered seven shoulder-launched SAM-7 Strela
anti-aircraft missiles, the military said Saturday. Six were turned in by
a citizen in exchange for a monetary reward, a statement said, while an
infantry patrol found the seventh hidden in tall grass.
Patrols also found a weapons cache consisting of 333 hand grenades, 92
rocket-propelled grenades and two RPG launchers, and arrested seven men
believed to have been involved in previous attacks.
The military also said that a man suspected of having served as one of
Saddam's bodyguards was detained Saturday in the northern oil city of
Kirkuk.
In Friday's helicopter crash, all six U.S. soldiers aboard were killed,
capping the bloodiest seven days in Iraq for Americans since the fall of
Baghdad. The cause of the crash remains uncertain although several U.S.
officers believe it was shot down.
The U.S. command said in a statement Saturday that initial findings
"discount the use of surface-to-air missiles as a possible cause."
U.S. officers have long been concerned about the safety of aviation
because of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of shoulder-fired missiles
still missing in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam's regime in April.
On Oct. 25, insurgents shot down a Black Hawk over Tikrit, injuring one
crewman. On Sunday, insurgent gunners brought down a Chinook transport
helicopter west of Baghdad, killing 16 Americans in the bloodiest single
strike against U.S. forces since the war began March 20.
An Apache attack helicopter was shot down in June in the western desert
but the two crewmembers escaped injury.
Following the crash, Lt. Col. Steven Russell, commander of the 1st
Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, also said U.S. forces had reimposed the
11 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew on Tikrit, which had been lifted at the start of
the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last month.
"This is to remind the town that we have teeth and claws and we will
use them," Russell said after his troops blasted two abandoned houses and
a warehouse with machine gun and heavy weapons fire.
U.S. troops late Friday also fired mortars and jets dropped at least
three 500-pound bombs around the crash site, rattling windows over a wide
area. Other U.S. jets streaked over Tikrit after sundown. At least three
mortars were also fired onto the U.S. compound but caused no damage.
____
Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Tikrit contributed this report.
