- Title: IRAQ: ROADSIDE BOMB IN TAJI KILLS THREE U.S SOLDIERS AND TWO IRAQIS
- Date: 17th January 2004
- Summary: (W5) TAJI, IRAQ (JANUARY 17, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF PEOPLE GATHERED AT THE SITE WHERE THE ATTACK HAPPENED 0.06 2. WIDE OF LARGE CRATER CAUSED BY THE EXPLOSION, MAN IN THE CRATER PICKING UP DEBRIS 0.11 3. CLOSE OF DEBRIS OF THE ATTACKED VEHICLE IN CRATER 0.16 4. CLOSE OF MORE DEBRIS ON THE ROAD 0.22 5. SLV MA
- Embargoed: 1st February 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TAJI, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAEOEBQZU6WKH1GMV8YRMSBNJZR
- Story Text: Three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis have been killed
by roadside bomb in Taji, north of Baghdad .
Guerrillas killed three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi
civil defence officials in a bomb attack north of Baghdad
on Saturday (January 17), as Washington insisted it would
hand over political power in Iraq in mid-2004 as scheduled.
In the latest attack, a huge roadside bomb near the
town of Taji, 30 km (19 miles) north of Baghdad, set a
Bradley armoured vehicle on fire and killed five inside,
said Lieutenant Colonel William Macdonald of the U.S.
Army's 4th Infantry Division.
Apart from the three U.S. and two Iraqi deaths, two
U.S. soldiers were injured, he said. Troops also arrested
three Iraqi men in a sweep of the area shortly afterwards
when a truck they were travelling in was found to contain
bomb-making material.
Taji was at the heart of Iraq's military-industrial
complex during the regime of ousted President Saddam
Hussein. It is in a region which coalition forces call the
"Sunni triangle", an area dominated by members of Saddam's
Sunni community where opposition to the U.S. occupation has
been fiercest.
The deaths in Saturday's attack take the number of U.S.
troops killed in Iraq since the invasion last year to just
one short of 500.
The mounting number of dead is a problem for U.S.
President George W. Bush as he seeks re-election in
November this year.
Bush held talks with the U.S. governor of Iraq Paul
Bremer on Friday (January 16) after which Bremer said
Washington was willing to adjust plans for handing over
power to appease Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, but was
unlikely to meet his key demand for elections this year.
He also stressed that the June 30 deadline for
transferring power to an Iraqi government would not be
extended.
Bremer will meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on
Monday (January 19) and is expected to press him to send a
U.N. team to Iraq to convince Shi'ites that direct
elections are not feasible, or suggest a workable
compromise.
Bush appears keen to show that the Iraq war has been
brought to a successful end. He declared major combat over
on May 1 last year, but at least 231 soldiers have been
killed in hostilities since then.
At least 115 soldiers were killed in the invasion
itself and another 153 have died in accidents.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None