Six Occupation Soldiers Killed in Last 24 Hours

27/07/2003| IslamWeb

At least one U.S. soldier was killed and one wounded early today in a new grenade attack south of Baghdad, U.S. military said. Also, a grenade attack Saturday killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded three as they guarded a children's hospital in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, Al-Jazeera satellite channel reported. Another U.S. soldier died and two others were wounded later in the afternoon when their convoy was attacked west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison. Also, in Mosul, engineers with the 101st Airborne Division tore down the badly damaged villa where Odai and Qusai Hussein were killed Tuesday in a four-hour gunbattle with U.S. forces. The home belonged to Sheik Nawaf al-Zaydan Muhhamad, a regional tribal leader and Saddam cousin, whose neighbors said he tipped American troops that the Hussein brothers were at his house. The U.S. occupation administration had offered 15 million dollars each for information leading to Saddam's wanted sons and 25 million dollars for Saddam. It was believed, although not confirmed by occupation military commanders, that Muhhamad was in protective custody. The occupation soldiers killed outside the hospital Saturday morning were part of the 4th Infantry Division, which came under grenade attack in Baqouba, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. Witnesses told an Associated Press photographer that the soldiers were guarding the hospital because some of their wounded comrades were being treated there. In the second attack, about two hours later, an engineer unit attached to the 3rd Infantry Division was attacked with small arms and rocket propelled grenades, the U.S. military said. Two soldiers were evacuated to a combat hospital, where one died. A third was treated at the scene and returned to duty. In Baghdad, the commander of Iraq's national police academy was wounded while leading a raid against suspected hijackers, police told AP. Brig. Ahmed Kadhim, 56, was shot in the leg around 1 a.m. while police were trying to arrest five suspected hijackers, said his assistant, Capt. Mushtak Fadhil. Five other police were wounded, one critically, and five men were arrested. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A U.S. soldier from the 4th Division pulls an Iraqi man out of his car at a checkpoint in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, July 26, 2003. (Photo by Faleh Kheiber/Reuters)