October 17, 2003
4 American Soldiers Are Killed in 2 New Attacks in Iraq
By TERENCE NEILAN
Three American soldiers were killed and seven were wounded in the Shiite holy city of Karbala late Thursday night, and another soldier was killed in Baghdad this morning, military officials said today.
Two Iraqi security officers were also killed and five were wounded in the Karbala attack outside the headquarters of a Shiite cleric.
At about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday a patrol of American military police and Iraqi security forces was ambushed near the Imam Abbas Mosque in Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.
The patrol was investigating reports of armed men congregating on a road near the mosque after a 9 p.m. curfew, the United States Central Command said in a statement.
Three 101st Airborne Division military police soldiers were killed in an exchange of small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
After the incident, American soldiers and Iraqi police forces surrounded a site near a mosque where the ambushers were holed up, but by this afternoon Iraqi time the forces had withdrawn.
At about 7:50 this morning an American soldier of the 220th Military Police Brigade was killed by an improvised roadside bomb in the Baghdad area, Maj. Mike Escudie, a spokesman for the command, said. Two other soldiers were wounded.
The fatalities Thursday night and today bring the number of American soldiers killed in hostile action since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1 to at least 101.
The wounded from the Karbala attack were taken to the 28th Combat Support Hospital for treatment, but no further details were released. The soldier wounded today was taken to a nearby medical center, Central Command said.
Karbala was the scene on Monday night of a battle between rival Shiite Muslim militias, one loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, a young cleric who is increasingly defiant of the United States and critical of the occupation. At least one person was killed and several people were wounded.
The 9 p.m. curfew was imposed on Tuesday as a result of the battle.
Today's action was believed to involve followers of Mahmoud al-Hassani, a local Shiite ayatollah, not Mr. Sadr.