Iraq War News

Hi all, I've just returned (yesterday) from a trip to Baltimore to say so long to my soldier who was returning to Iraq after his R&R. I arrived 3 hours before he did, and stood in wonder and awe upon viewing the many, many soldiers dressed in desert fatigues in the airport. Each stood so proudly, joked together, some looked pensive, some really ready to go home for their R&R.

On the trip to the hotel, I rode with 5 soldiers who had just traveled 11 hours from the Chinese border heading home. Each was eager to see loved ones, polite, friendly. I asked what they thought would be needed/wanted most for a soldier in Iraq, they said letters, letters, and shampoo, soap, and laundry detergent, and that they thought the troops in Iraq had it very hard, with little supplies or resources to obtain them.

Another soldier I spoke with was going home to see her children. She was returning from the Chinese border too, and had a 9 year old, and 6 year old twins. She had not seen them in a year.

I was just so proud of all of them...and felt humbled here being safe, and they experiencing so many emotions. Their attitude was positive, strong, humorous, welcoming, teasing and certainly warm and supportive towards to each other. Their connections were solid and strong.

My short visit with my son, (5 hours) was well worth the trip. It was a night of talking....no big discussions, no problems solved, just warm, comforting chat. Much needed.

He left with his head held high, and promises to be safe, (and to write more!)

With the help of this group's slogan, "Keep your back to the wall, and your helmet on", enabled me to make it outside of the area of soldiers before getting teary......

Wow, what an experience. Please try to rest assured that your soldiers experience unity, strength, support, and humor from on another...........
Lee

One of the soldiers, Chris, on my son's and my trip to the airport (for him to depart) told my son that he should be proud that his "momma" came 3 hours just to spend some time with him, and to "make his momma proud, sir". I just choked up at that! Here was this soldier....telling Mark to be proud...I was just so proud of both of them that I could have burst!!!
LeeIraq War News

U.S. Army Bombards Targets Near Saddam's Hometown
Sun November 16, 2003 08:32 PM ET

(Page 1 of 2)
By Dean Yates
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops fanned out around Saddam Hussein's hometown in Iraq overnight and unleashed mortar and tank rounds on various targets as part of a fresh military operation against insurgents.

Reporters with the 4th Infantry Division's 1-22 Battalion saw shells fired at positions from where commanders said insurgents had lobbed mortars or rockets at the division's base, inside one of Saddam's former palace complexes in Tikrit town.

The ground shook as rounds landed and flares continued to light up the night sky early on Monday in an operation coordinated with other battalions in the division and backed by attack helicopters.

In one attack, four M1 Abrams tanks perched on top of a desert cliff fired rounds at a position in the fields below, from where American troops said insurgents had fired a rocket earlier in the day. Exploding shells fired by other units thudded in the distance.

"For us this is not a display, we want to get the enemy... The message is: 'Give up, it's over'," said 1-22 Battalion commander Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell, before the tanks opened up.

IVY CYCLONE TWO

The bombardment coincided with the launch on Sunday of a campaign dubbed Ivy Cyclone Two, an operation aimed at insurgents in north-central Iraq.

President Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1, but since then Iraqi insurgents have stepped up attacks on U.S.-led occupation forces.

The mounting U.S. casualty toll has prompted the U.S. military to respond with operations around Tikrit and in Baghdad. But that has done little to slow attacks on U.S. soldiers and other troops from the occupation forces.

As part of the new campaign, troops fired a satellite-guided missile for the first time since major combat was declared over, an army spokesman said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Macdonald, spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said the missile with a 500 pound (225 kg) warhead was fired from a mobile launch pad just north of Baghdad on Sunday.
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

``No European leader is willing... to get in front of the United Nations and say, I think that suicide bombers, the act of a suicide bomber, should be declared by the United Nations as a crime against humanity,'' he said. Utusan Malaysia Online - World

Troops flooded a Baghdad neighborhood in a new U.S. military offensive against guerrillas Sunday, as an audiotape purportedly made by Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to escalate their fight against the occupation.

The U.S. military moves in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq came as the Army tried to determine why two of its Black Hawk helicopters crashed in the northern city of Mosul, killing 17 soldiers in the worst single loss of American life since the war began.

In its offensive, the military fired a satellite-guided missile with a 500-pound warhead at a suspected guerrilla training base, and four insurgents were killed in a separate clash. Both actions are part of an effort to take the fight to the enemy, rather than responding to ambushes and attacks.

"Any of those groups that are working against the best interest of the Iraqis are going to be targeted," said Lt. Col. William MacDonald, spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division.

Strong explosions thundered through central Baghdad after sundown Sunday, apparently part of "Operation Iron Hammer," the new "get tough" strategy.

A large number of U.S. troops, backed by armored vehicles and helicopters, moved into the Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Azamiyah, sealing off a 20-block area and searching vehicles in a show of force.

Meanwhile, the alleged Saddam tape urged Iraqis to escalate attacks against the occupation and "agents brought by foreign armies" _ an apparent reference to Iraqis supporting the coalition.

The speaker on the tape, aired on Al-Arabiya television, said the only way to end the chaos in Iraq was for Saddam and his now outlawed Baath Party to return to power.

The CIA said it would review the tape for its authenticity. But President Bush dismissed the recording.

"I suspect it's the same old stuff. It's propaganda. We're not leaving until the job is done, pure and simple," Bush said. "I'm sure he'd like to see us leave, if in fact it's his voice. I know the elements of the Baathist party, those who used to torture, maim and kill in order to stay in power would like to see us leave."

The voice in the recording resembled Saddam's, but was huskier and the speaker seemed tired.

"The evil ones now find themselves in crisis and this is God's will for them," he said.

The only solution for Iraq, the speaker said, was for "the zealous Iraqi sons, who ran its affairs and brought it out of backwardness ... to return ... to run its affairs anew," he said, referring to the Baath leadership.

The speaker also lashed out at Iraqis who cooperate with the U.S. military, calling them "stray dogs that walk alongside the caravan."

The top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said Saddam likely made some arrangements for a guerrilla war against the Americans before his regime fell in April.

"I think there are some indications that he had prepared for a low-intensity conflict, terrorist war, the kind we're seeing now, beforehand," Bremer said on "Fox News Sunday." "There had been some documents that have come to light since liberation that suggest there were preparations."

In northern Iraq, the U.S. military was investigating whether insurgent ground fire caused the crash of the two U.S. helicopters, which were from the 101st Airborne Division. The aircraft went down in residential neighborhoods of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.

"There are reports that there may have been ground fire, and one of them may have been trying to avoid that. We just don't know at this point," Bremer said on "Fox News Sunday."

Witnesses said the two aircraft collided, and some said at least one was struck by hostile fire. Military spokesman Col. William M. Darley said the cause of the crash "will be under intense investigation today" and dismissed reports of ground fire as speculation.

All the victims were from the 101st Airborne, which is based in Fort Campbell, Ky., a military spokesman said. Division spokesman Maj. Trey Cate said one helicopter carried a quick response team that was on its way to investigate a shooting incident in which a U.S. soldier was injured. The other helicopter was on a transport mission.

An Iraqi policeman in Mosul said at least one of the Black Hawks was hit by ground fire.

"They hit it with a missile," said policeman Saddam Abdel Sattar. "I was in the army. I know these things."

Another witness said he heard gunfire on the ground before the crash.

"The Black Hawks were in the air and there was shooting. It was dark and one slammed into the other," said an Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldier who identified himself only as Mahmoud.

Before the Saturday crash, the U.S. military's deadliest single incident since the Iraq war began March 20 was the downing of a Chinook helicopter near Fallujah on Nov. 2 that killed 16 soldiers. A Black Hawk was also shot down on Nov. 7 in Tikrit, killing all six soldiers on board.

The Saturday crash raised to 417 the number of Americans who have died in Iraq since the invasion, including combat and non-combat deaths.

Separately, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld cautioned on Sunday that the Bush administration plan to establish a provisional Iraqi government by June, ending the American occupation, does not mean not mean U.S. troops will withdraw soon. The issue of troops is "on a separate track" from the political timetable, he said.

On the streets of Iraq, there were mixed feelings.

"I would hope the Americans would leave even before June. We prefer they leave as soon as possible since their staying here causes all the problems," said Hussein Abaid, 52.

But Essai Khallaf Jabar, 48, disagreed.

"It's hard to satisfy all the desires of Iraqi people. Finding a leader is not going to be easy," he said. "I still wish the Americans would stay longer, four or five years, to take care of security."

In other Iraq developments:

_ In Paris, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said the U.S. plan to cede power in Iraq by June moves too slowly, and he urged occupation forces to have a provisional government in place by the end of 2003.

_ In Mosul, a roadside bomb detonated under an Army convoy, wounding five soldiers.

_ The military said four Iraqi insurgents were killed late Saturday in two separate clashes with U.S. troops in Diyala province, and U.S. troops fired a missile with a 500-pound warhead at a suspected training base for Saddam loyalists near the northern city of Kirkuk. There was no immediate information on casualties and damage, he said.

U.S. Troops Move Against Iraqi Insurgents

The French Continue to stink. Boycott France.

Fox News reporting Usama Bin Murderer moving into Iran with Mustafa , Abu Yazid is the alias name that Mustafa is traveling under. Iran is giving official authorization for Al Queda to launch assault from their soil. Iranians looking for an insurance policy. Iran has numerous military uniforms and jeeps from all countries. Remember the Saudi Arabia homicide bombers wore and drove police issueIraq War News

DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Pfc. Jacob S. Fletcher, 28, of Bay Shore, N.Y., was killed on Nov. 13 in Samara, Iraq. Fletcher was riding on a bus when an improvised explosive device exploded. Fletcher died of his injuries.



Fletcher was assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, Camp Ederle, Italy.



DoD News: DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTYDefenseLINK Template

"The attacks against Jews and America will follow. Let America and Israel cry for their dead from today and the destruction that they will suffer," his e-mail said

There was no way to independently confirm the authenticity of either claim of responsibility.

The al-Masri group also issued a claim for the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August. U.S. officials in Washington said at the time that they could not authenticate the claim and it remained unclear if the group exists or is linked al-Qaida.

In its statement received Sunday, it warned of further attacks and demanded that the United States release Arab prisoners held at Guantanamo in Cuba and stop making war on Muslim states. It also warned President Bush that attacks would be directed at the United States itself.
Al-Qaida claims Istanbul attacks received by Arabic newspaper

Two US soldiers from the US Army's 4th Infantry Division's 299th Engineers Batallion look at a stockpile of Iraqi ammunition inside a bunker in Mazham, a village 12km north of the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit.(AFP/Patrick Moser) Yahoo! News - Top Stories World Photos - AFP

French U.N. worker killed in Afghanistan
JuneauEmpire.com: Associated Press: "One of two Afghan men on a motorcycle opened fire Sunday on a marked United Nations' car, killing a French aid worker, the first international U.N. staff member slain in postwar Afghanistan. Police identified the captured assailants as Taliban militants."

Iraq War News
'Saddam' tape taunts US military: "A recording purportedly of Saddam Hussein says the occupying forces in Iraq have reached "a dead end"."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Bremer: US in tough fight in Iraq: "America's top man in Iraq says the US is in "a tough fight" there and its forces will stay on after political power is handed over."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Gambling on Plan B: "The US decision to hand over power by the end of June is a recognition that its policy has failed, writes Paul Reynolds."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



Unreported attacks: "The BBC's Martin Asser sees victims of violent crime at a Baghdad hospital."

In BBC: Conflict with Iraq (UK Edition)



US To Help Ink Iraqi Constitution: "Iraq�s new constitution will embody American values, including a bill of rights, says America's chief postwar administrator, L. Paul Bremer. Enemy fire may have caused the crash of two U.S. helicopters Saturday that killed 17 American soldiers."

In CBS News: Iraq Crisis

No. 853-03
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 16, 2003
(703)697-5131(media)
(703)428-0711(public/industry)

DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTIES

The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of five soldiers who
were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. The soldiers were killed on Nov. 15 when
two 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters crashed in
Mosul, Iraq. Killed were:



Sgt. Michael D. Acklin II, 25, of Louisville, Ky. Acklin was assigned
to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault),
Fort Campbell, Ky.



Spc. Ryan T. Baker, 24, of Brown Mills, N.J. Baker was assigned to the
4th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort
Campbell, Ky.



Spc. William D. Dusenbery, 30, of Fairview Heights, Ill. Dusenbery was
assigned to the 4th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air
Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.



Sgt. Warren S. Hansen, 36, of Clintonville, Wis. Hansen was assigned to
the 9th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault),
Fort Campbell, Ky.



Spc. Eugene A. Uhl III, 21, of Amherst, Wis. Uhl was assigned to the
1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort
Campbell, Ky.



There are twelve additional fatalities from this incident pending next
of kin notification.

Inside, Rich wrote:

"I live in a 60-man tent with no heat or electricity... get to take a cold shower every 4 days. It is only going to get worse from here. They don't know when we're coming home. Rumor is we're moving north on Feb. 12. All I'm doing now is training, that is all we do. The only thing keeping me going is watching all the REMFs complain about the living conditions. You can send me a package no bigger than a shoebox. Well that's all for now."

His parents got no more mail from Rich, but they did get three phone calls.

The first one, on May 5, lasted a few minutes, Remy Davis recalled. It was 12:49 p.m. in St. Charles and she was home taking care of Lisa, Richard's 21-year-old sister who has Down syndrome. "They had just reached Baghdad," Remy Davis recalled. She remembers doing most of the talking, but Rich talked about coming home in 10 to 15 days.

Two days later, on May 7 at 2:23 p.m., another call came. Her son seemed more talkative, Remy Davis said. "He was talking about his car, about his trip from Kuwait to Baghdad, that he was wearing the same clothes and had not taken a bath from the beginning of his trip from Kuwait to Baghdad and to the end of the war," his mother said. "I think it was something like 25 days. They just got used to each other's smell."

Morale, he told her, was very low. They were still eating MREs and sleeping in the dirt.

"He said that when he got home all he wanted to do was work on his car," Remy Davis said. When she told her son she would meet him at Fort Benning, Rich said that wouldn't be necessary.

"He said he'd just fly home and then I could bring him anywhere I wanted," Remy Davis said. She planned on a trip to her native Philippines, where Rich had expressed a desire to visit.

The lengthiest call came May 20, around 6 p.m. This time Lanny Davis was home and able to talk with his son for about 30 minutes while his wife listened in on another line in the bedroom. The call was markedly different from the first two, each parent said. Richard sounded "in distress" and was talking "irrationally," they said.

They were now going to be in Iraq indefinitely, Rich told his parents. He talked about holes in his boots, said he could no longer stand the MREs and that they were waiting for drinking water. His rucksack, which had been hanging outside a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, was blown up by a rocket propelled grenade. Rich mentioned seeing a lot of dead bodies, his father said.

"Everyone was quiet and keeping to themselves," Lanny Davis recalled his son saying. "He said he didn't trust friendly people -- I didn't know if he was talking about Iraqis or his fellow soldiers."

When the Davises told their son that Saddam Hussein still hadn't been found, he was in disbelief. At one point during that third phone call he cried, pleading with his father to "get me outta here."

A brief exchange of goodbyes and I-love-yous followed. It was the last time Lanny and Remy Davis would speak to their son.

On May 23, the couple got a letter from MCI threatening to disconnect their long-distance service. Lanny Davis did not understand. They had not been late on any bills and had received only a handful of calls from overseas. A few days later, their long-distance service was interrupted. It took a week before MCI restored the service.

In the meantime, two more calls came -- they believe were from their son -- but the connection was cut, Remy Davis said. During the last call she picked up, she heard a voice saying, "Mom, Mom, Mom," before the line went dead.

After that, there were no more calls from Rich.

Despite their son's wishes, the Davises planned for a surprise visit to Fort Benning for Rich's homecoming. They continued to follow national coverage of the war, scanning the news ticker on CNN for news of the 3rd Brigade's return home.

'It's about Richard'
A Soldiers Blog

When soldiers are ambushed in Iraq, they are rapidly evacuated, their vehicles quickly towed and their plight boiled down into the day's tally of dead and wounded. "When we get injured, all it says is 'one soldier wounded,' " Acosta said, echoing others at Walter Reed. "Not that a soldier has lost an arm or a leg, or how hard that is."

The wounded stay at first in the main hospital building at Walter Reed, about eight miles north of downtown Washington. Once the threat of infection and the need for serious surgeries have passed, they go home for several weeks before returning to the hospital campus.

The wounded are comforted to find others who knew towns like Hilla, Ramadi and Tikrit and who lost a part of themselves on some identical, stunningly hot Iraqi day.

"I hate this place so much, but all these guys, we form a bond," Acosta said. "Talking to Vietnam vets, that's cool. But it's not like talking to someone who's been through Iraq."

Wounded U.S. soldiers travel many tough paths to recovery

IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 16, 2003
(703)697-5131(media)
(703)428-0711(public/industry)

DOD IDENTIFIES ARMY CASUALTY

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was
supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.



Spc. Irving Medina, 22, of Middletown, N.Y., was killed on Nov.14 in Baghdad, Iraq.
Medina was traveling in a convoy when it struck an improvised explosive device.



Medina was assigned to 4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Riley, Kan.
photos-iraq-11-16-03

Iraqi homeless people sit inside the ruins of al-Kadaimya weapons factory in Baghdad's suburb of Taji on Nov. 12, 2003. Iraqi scientist Dr. Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimi who headed Saddam Hussein 's long-range missile program has fled to Iran. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) Yahoo! News - World Photos - AP

AP Exclusive: Top Iraqi Scientist Flees

By DAFNA LINZER, Associated Press Writer

The Iraqi scientist who headed Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s long-range missile program has fled to neighboring Iran, a country identified as a state sponsor of terrorism with a successful missile program and nuclear ambitions, U.S. officers involved in the weapons hunt told The Associated Press.


Dr. Modher Sadeq-Saba al-Tamimi's departure comes as top weapons makers from Saddam's deposed regime find themselves eight months out of work but with skills that could be lucrative to militaries or terrorist organizations in neighboring countries. U.S. officials have said some are already in Syria and Jordan.


Experts long feared the collapse of Saddam's rule could lead to the kind of scientific brain-drain the United States tried to prevent as the former Soviet Union collapsed. But the Bush administration had no plan for Iraqi scientists and instead officials suggested they could be tried for war crimes.


"There are a couple hundred Iraqis who are really good scientists, particularly in the missile area," said Jonathan Tucker, a former U.N. inspector now with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute in California. "In the chemical and biological areas, their work wasn't state of the art but it was good enough to be of interest to other countries."


Only now is the State Department exploring the possibility of a government-funded program to block a scientific exodus and prevent Iraqis from doing future research in weapons of mass destruction. Initial cost estimates for the program run about $16 million, according to a Nov. 3 draft proposal obtained by AP.
Yahoo! News - AP Exclusive: Top Iraqi Scientist Flees

Bush: Saddam Won't Drive U.S. from Iraq
Sun November 16, 2003 01:20 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Sunday dismissed as "propaganda" a purported audio tape by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and said Saddam would fail in his attempts to drive the United States from Iraq.
Asked about the tape by Saddam broadcast on an Arabic television station on Sunday, Bush said, "I haven't seen the specifics. I suspect it is the same old stuff ... It's propaganda, and we're not leaving until the job is done."
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Strong Explosions Heard in Baghdad

By MARIAM FAM
.c The Associated Press

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - Strong explosions thundered through central Baghdad after sundown Sunday in what appeared to be part of a U.S. military operation against insurgents in the capital.

About three explosions could be heard coming from the western part of the capital shortly before 9 p.m. U.S. officials said the blasts were probably part of ``Operation Iron Hammer,'' a new offensive operation against insurgents who have been attacking U.S. and other coalition forces.

The U.S. military on Sunday was investigating whether insurgent groundfire caused the crash in Mosul of two U.S. helicopters, killing 17 American soldiers, the worst single loss of U.S. life since the start of the Iraq war.

Soldiers using cranes cleared rubble and removed all the bodies from the residential neighborhoods where the two Black Hawks crashed in the darkness of the night before in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city.

All the casualties were from the 101st Airborne Division, which controls northern Iraq. Five soldiers were injured.

Meanwhile, America's chief postwar administrator in Iraq said Sunday the United States will help write an interim Iraqi constitution that embodies American values and will lead to the creation of a new government.

``We will write into that constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam's constitution,'' L. Paul Bremer told ABC's ``This Week'' from Baghdad. ``We'll have a bill of rights. We'll recognize equality for all citizens. We'll recognize an independent judiciary. We'll talk about a federal government.

Bremer said Americans will work with the Iraqi Governing Council in writing the interim constitution. There will also be a side agreement dealing with security and the presence of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, he said.

The Senate's top Democrat, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, expressed concern about what he said was the deteriorating situation in Iraq today.

``I don't know that we can say we're losing. ... I'm not sure we're winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people today, and that's of a real concern,'' he told ``Fox News Sunday.''

``I think the president needs, first and foremost, a plan for success, not an exit strategy. I think they're putting too much emphasis on exit and not enough emphasis on success,'' he said.

On the same program, Bremer noted that President Bush has said the United States will not ``cut and run'' from Iraq. But Bremer said the duration of the U.S. military presence will be negotiated with the coming Iraqi government.

The chief military spokesman in Baghdad, Col. William M. Darley, said the cause of the Mosul crash ``will be under intense investigation today.''

A statement by the U.S. command said one helicopter was carrying a quick reaction force and the other ferried soldiers on a transport mission in northern Iraq. Maj. Trey Cate, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne, said the quick response team was on its way to investigate a shooting incident in which a U.S. soldier was injured.

The statement did not give the cause of the crash.

An Iraqi policeman in Mosul, however, said at least one of the Black Hawks was hit by ground fire.

``They hit it with a missile,'' said policeman Saddam Abdel Sattar. ``I was in the army, I know these things.''

Another witness, Yousra Khedr said she saw one helicopter above her house before hearing the sound of a loud boom.

``I saw the sky light up, it was like thunder and lightning,'' she said, adding that after the initial boom she heard gunfire in the area but could not say where it came from.

One soldier at the scene told The Associated Press he heard that one of the helicopters was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade before it crashed. A U.S. military spokesman said such reports were ``at best speculative.''

Another witness said he heard gunfire on the ground before the crashed.

``The Black Hawks were in the air and there was shooting (on the ground). It was dark and one slammed into the other,'' said an Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldier who identified himself only as Mahmoud.

One helicopter had 12 soldiers on board; seven were killed and five injured. The other had 10 aboard; all were killed, Cate said. Initial reports that one soldier was missing were incorrect, a military spokesman said.

Before the crash, the U.S. military's deadliest incident was the downing of a Chinook transport helicopter on Nov. 2 that killed 16 soldiers. A Black Hawk was also shot down on Nov. 7, killing all six soldiers on board.

There were days early in the war in which more soldiers died, but they were spread over several attacks or accidents.

Violence in the area continued on Sunday. A roadside bomb exploded in Mosul, hitting an Iraqi minibus, slightly injuring four people, Iraqi police said. There were no U.S. troops in the area of the blast.

The crash put the number of American casualties since the March invasion at 417.

Associated Press writer Hamza Hendawi contributed to this report from Baghdad.



11/16/03 13:09 ESTIraq War News

Bush reaps widening 'war on terror' retaliation

17.11.2003
By PHIL REEVES in Baghdad and PELIN TURGUT in Istanbul
Yesterday was one of the worst days for President George W. Bush since he launched his "war on terror" and invaded Iraq.

As bombs blamed on al Qaeda devastated two synagogues in Turkey's largest city, killing at least 22 and wounding more than 242, the United States suffered its 400th combat loss in Iraq and more Americans were killed in a helicopter crash in the north of the country.

At least 17 US soldiers died and five were seriously injured when two US Black Hawk helicopters collided as one was reportedly trying to evade an attacking missile, US military and Iraqi police sources said.

Officials said international groups - possibly including al Qaeda - might have had a hand in the Turkish blasts, which wrecked buildings around the heavily protected synagogues. The explosions killed 11 Muslims and nine Jews

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, said he believed bombers with international terrorist links were behind the blasts.

The US forged ahead yesterday with a plan to formally end its occupation of Iraq - though not its military presence - in June, but the announcement was overshadowed by multiple signs of insecurity, including an explosion derailing a train near Tikrit and another blast in the centre of the capital, Baghdad.

A landmine in northern Baghdad claimed the life of a patrolling US soldier, the 400th to die in Iraq.


The loss of life in Iraq and Istanbul highlighted an uncomfortable fact for Mr Bush, about to make a state visit to Britain: neither Saddam Hussein nor Osama bin Laden has been killed or captured.

In Britain, security forces are on the second-highest state of alert after intelligence emerged about attack plans being drafted by allies of al Qaeda in north Africa.
New Zealand News - World - Bush reaps widening 'war on terror' retaliation

Purported Saddam Tape Urges Iraqi Resistance-TV
Sun November 16, 2003 11:42 AM ET

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Arabic television station broadcast a purported audio tape by ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Sunday calling on Iraqis to wage holy war against occupying forces and warning of more deaths for U.S.-led troops.
"Fighting them...is a legitimate, patriotic and humanitarian duty and the occupiers have no choice but to leave our country Iraq, the country of Arabs and Islam, as cursed losers," the speaker, who sounded like Saddam, said.

"The path of jihad and resistance is the best path under God, human kind and history and is the only path which will guarantee the expulsion of the tyrannical foreign forces from our country and grant total freedom and sovereignty to our people in their land," he said in a statement marking the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Explosions heard in BaghdadIraq War News

Fox News reporting tape of a voice puported to be Saddam Hussein.
Theory, what if the voice is Saddams. Old tapes of his voice put together by Iran. Iran the new breeding ground for training camps and terrorists refuge. Syria has the weapons of mass destruction and the two meet up. Iraq War News

U.S soldiers clear wreckage from a destroyed Black Hawk helicopter in Mosul, November 16, 2003. U.S. troops retrieved bodies and wreckage from two Black Hawks which came down under fire yesterday, killing at least 17 soldiers. The heaviest U.S. loss of life in a single incident since the invasion of Iraq in March came just hours after Washington set the country on a swifter passage to self-rule in a bid to calm Iraqi anger at occupation. Photo by Akram Saleh/Reuters Yahoo! News - World Photos - Reuters

U.S. Army soldiers from left; Jacob Burgoyne, Alberto Martinez Mario Navarrete and Douglas Woodcoff are shown in undated police booking photos. All four men are charged in connection with the stabbing death of Spc. Richard R. Davis, 24, of St. Charles, Mo., shortly after the five returned to Fort Benning, Ga., after serving in Iraq . Martinez is charged with murder and the other three with concaeling a death. (AP Photo/Columbus Police Department) Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - AP

DO YOU IDIOTS AT THIS SITE THINK THAT THIS WILL STOP JIHAD! GET REAL START MAKING SITES THAT WILL HELP DEFEND FREEDOM AND SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! STOP TEARING DOWN OUR PRESIDENT AND LET HIM DO HIS JOB.

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The Olympian, Olympia Washington

Sunday, November 16, 2003
News

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U.S. copter crash kills 17 in Iraq
Fort Lewis soldier dies in explosion in Afghanistan


DANIEL WILLIAMS THE WASHINGTON POST The Olympian Online

IRAQ: Latest developments



BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Two U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collided in midair Saturday and crashed into a residential neighborhood in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 17 soldiers and injuring five others, the U.S. military said.
Meanwhile, KOMO-TV reported that a 23-year-old soldier based at Fort Lewis was killed when his Humvee drove over a homemade landmine in Afghanistan.

The soldier was identified as Sgt. Jay Anthony Blessing, with the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. He was deployed to the Middle East two weeks ago, the station reported.
Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Hitt said he had no information on Blessing or whether a Fort Lewis soldier was among those dead Saturday. He referred inquiries to the Department of Defense, which could not be reached.

"They have to do notification of next of kin," Hitt told The Olympian. "We just don't know ourselves."

In the Iraq crash, military officials said one other soldier was unaccounted for. All of those on board the helicopters were members of the 101st Airborne Division, based in Fort Campbell, Ky. The officials said the aircraft collided when one, attempting to dodge ground fire, climbed swiftly and hit the other.


U.S. copter crash kills 17 in Iraq / Front Page -The Olympian

IRAN-IRAQ Border -- Coalition eyes have focused on the borders of Northern Iraq in recent weeks, where anti-American terrorists are suspected of moving into Iraq and orchestrating attacks on U.S. soldiers.

With just 61 soldiers, Company F, 51st Infantry Regiment, in the snow-capped mountains of Northern Iraq, has manned 660 kilometers of Iraqi border, covering the Iranian and Turkish lines. The 101st Airborne Division, with which Company F is temporarily attached, is lobbying for more border soldiers from the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad.

With six- to seven-member teams, the company has patrolled the border, trained more than 600 Iraqi border guards and taken the fight to enemy forces looking to cross into Iraq.

Foxtrot Company specializes in long-range surveillance -- one of only a handful of units in the Army with that capability.

The team has also teamed up with Turkish Special Forces in patrolling the border. With the Kurdish and Turkish soldiers, the Coalition border patrol numbers less than 1,000 -- a light force, but one with more "specified knowledge" than the much larger force that patrolled the border before the fall of Saddam.

101st soldiers have trained more than 2,100 border guards who man the borders of Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Compiled by Leaf-Chronicle military reporter Chantal Escoto. Sources: 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs Office and www.centcom.mil.
Foxtrot Company patrols N. Iraq borders - theleafchronicle.com

Local soldier's family anxious
20-year-old South Bend woman serves with 101st Airborne.

By Angela Ingram
WSBT-TV Reporter
Amanda Marie Zimmerman of South Bend serves with the Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.

News of the helicopter crash in Iraq came as Kari Zimmerman prepared to ship a box full of her daughter's favorite things for Christmas.

Twenty-year-old Amanda Marie Zimmerman is serving with the Army's 101st Airborne Division in Iraq -- the same division that lost 17 soldiers Saturday when two Black Hawk helicopters collided.

Though the 101st has thousands of soldiers, Amanda's parents are waiting anxiously to hear that she is safe.

Kari and Walt Zimmerman have no reason to think she was in one of those helicopters, but they do know that she has had to move from place to place while she's been in Iraq. So when they hear about action involving the 101st, they always worry.

"When something like today happens ... we'd really be hoping for a phone call soon," Kari Zimmerman said. She last heard from her daughter on Thursday. Amanda usually calls once a week, Kari said, and she has access to e-mail once every four days.

Her parents say Amanda really loves her job.

"She basically moves supplies," said Kari Zimmerman, who is, like Amanda, a South Bend native. Amanda drives a vehicle that "picks up the big containers that you see on trains. She picks them up and moves them," Kari Zimmerman said.

Kari finds news of tragedies like Saturday's particularly hard to explain to her two younger children. She says her 8-year-old, Brandon, is particularly worried about his sister's safety.

"He