Nine US troops killed in Iraq
BAGHDAD: A bomb tore apart an armoured Bradley fighting vehicle on Thursday, killing seven US soldiers, while two Marines died in the volatile al-Anbar province, in the bloodiest day for US forces so far this year. With elections due at the end of January, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi meanwhile extended emergency laws for 30 days in a bid to thwart violence directed at keeping people away from the voting for a 275-seat parliament.The second-in-command of US forces in Iraq told reporters that security was lacking in four provinces, where the insurgency has thrived in central Iraq’s Sunni Muslim belt, but said delaying elections would be a mistake. Despite the brave face put on plans to carry out Iraq’s unprecedented free election, an internal US State Department poll obtained by AFP showed only a third of Sunni Muslims are “very likely” to vote and 88 percent said fear of attacks would keep them away.In the northern city of Mosul, bodies of 18 Iraqis apparently lured to their deaths by promises of work at a US base were uncovered on Thursday, while in a separate development a French newspaper said one its correspondents was missing.Meanwhile, Iraq’s neighbours meeting in Jordan pledged not to interfere in elections and urged all Iraqis to vote on deciding their future. In the bloodiest attack against US troops in the new year, seven US soldiers in a Bradley fighting vehicle were killed when a bomb ripped a hole in the light armoured tank, which is used for its manoeuvrability in Baghdad’s dense streets.None of the seven soldiers in the vehicle survived the blast, in northwestern Baghdad around 6:00pm local time (1500 GMT), said Capt Patricia Brewer, a Baghdad spokeswoman for the coalition forces.It was the largest number of US troops killed in a single attack since last month’s suicide bombing in a military mess hall at a Mosul base that killed 22 people, including 14 US service members. In Al-Anbar province, home to the explosive cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, two US Marines were killed in action, the military said, but released no further details on the separate incidents.In other violence, the head of police in the Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City, Abdel Karim, was gunned down in an ambush. Four Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were also killed in separate attacks in northern Iraq. The deputy US ground commander in Iraq, Lt Gen Thomas Metz, told reporters insurgents in Iraq are ‘thugs’ who will not be allowed to derail the elections. French newspaper Liberation, meanwhile, said one if its correspondents, Florence Aubenas, and her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadihad gone missing in Iraq. afp
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