5 US soldiers killed in Baghdad ambush
Deaths cap end of the deadliest 3-month period
BAGHDAD -- A huge bomb explosion followed by a hail of gunfire and grenades killed five US soldiers, the military said yesterday. The attack climaxed the deadliest three-month period for Americans since the war began.
Seven soldiers were wounded in the attack Thursday in the Rasheed district, a mixed Sunni-Shi'ite area of southern Baghdad where US-led forces recently stepped up pressure on extremists. The commander of US forces in Baghdad suggested the ambush could be part of an escalating backlash by Sunni insurgents.
Those deaths brought to 99 the number of US troops killed this month, according to an Associated Press count. The toll for the past three months -- 329 -- made it the deadliest quarter for US troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. That surpasses the 316 soldiers killed during November 2004 to January 2005.
Major General Joseph F. Fil Jr., who heads US forces in the Iraqi capital, said US casualties had mounted because Sunni extremists are "starting to fight very hard" as US forces press into areas where militants had free rein.
"This is a skilled and determined enemy. He's ruthless. He's got a thirst for blood like I've never seen anywhere in my life," Fil told reporters.
During a teleconference with Pentagon reporters, Fil described the Thursday attack as very violent, displaying a "level of sophistication that we have not often seen so far in this campaign."
He said a blast from a very large bomb buried deep in the ground triggered the attack, which was followed by volleys of small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Four soldiers were killed and a fifth died Thursday night of his wounds, Fil said.
"As far as the assessment, we believe that we are into an area" of south Baghdad "where we're seeing a very strong Al Qaeda cell," Fil said. "Those areas are now denied to them . . . They are starting to fight very hard and that's what we saw yesterday."
Sunni insurgents have used similar "swarming" tactics for years, mostly in rural areas to the north and west of the capital. Militants have also been burying explosives deep in the ground, making them difficult to detect .
US casualties have been rising since President Bush ordered nearly 30,000 more troops to Iraq in a major push to pacify Baghdad and surrounding areas.
In a hopeful sign, radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called off a July 5 march to a bombed shrine in Samarra after appeals from the government, which feared Sunni extremists would attack marchers.
Sheik Asad Al-Nassiri, an aide to Sadr, told a congregation in Kufa that Sadr canceled the march because of "the government's inability to secure the route and many officials' appeals for a postponement."
At the same time, anger has been welling up among Sunni Arabs, who contend they are being marginalized in the Shi'ite-dominated government.
A Sunni political party said yesterday that four Sunni Cabinet members will refuse to attend government meetings to protest the way Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki handled legal proceedings against the fifth Sunni minister.
Also yesterday, the Pentagon said it has changed the status of two soldiers who have been unaccounted for since an attack on their unit in Iraq on May 12 from "whereabouts unknown" to "missing/captured."
The change reflects an official determination that Specialist Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass., and Private Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., were seized by hostile forces. It does not mean the military has new information on their whereabouts. 