The Hindu : International : Car bomb kills seven Marines in Fallujah

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Tuesday, Sep 07, 2004

International

International

Car bomb kills seven Marines in Fallujah

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, SEPT. 6. Seven U.S. Marines were killed and eight wounded in a massive car bomb explosion on the outskirts of Fallujah today. The suicide car bombing targeted two U.S. vehicles of a military convoy. Soon after the blast, the area was sealed off and helicopters ferried the dead and the injured to hospitals. Today's attack comes day after a deadly mortar attack near Baghdad on Sunday in which two U.S. soldiers were killed and 16 others were wounded.

Mounting casualties

According to an estimate by the Washington Post, about 1,100 U.S. troops have been injured in Iraq in August — the highest number of combat injures in any month since the war began. U.S. military sources were quoted as saying that the high injury toll was mainly because of the recent fighting in Najaf. Besides, fighting in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City on the outskirts of Baghdad and fighting in the Sunni bastions of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra also contributed to the growing list of the injured.

Iraqi guerillas blew up a natural gas pipeline in northern Iraq on Monday. The attack on the pipeline, connecting the Janbur oil fields to the Baiji power station to the south, resulted in a fire that was being put out. The Baiji power station can generate up to 400 MW a day, and supplies power to the northern cities of Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit. Meanwhile, confusion prevailed over the reported detention of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a close confidant of the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein.

Hostages freed

AP, Reuters report:

In another development, Iraqi kidnappers freed three Jordanians and one Sudanese today, a day after they were reported seized, Jordan's Foreign Minister, Marwan Muasher, said.

He told reporters in Amman that the four truck drivers had been released, but gave no details.

The Arabic TV station Al Jazeera said the men had been taken hostage yesterday by a group called the Fallujah Mujahideen, which gave the channel a videotape in which it said the drivers had been transporting supplies to U.S. forces.

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