- KHALDIYAH, Iraq (AFP) --
US forces took heavy casualties in a series of attacks on an American convoy
in the town of Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, witnesses here said.
-
- According to an unconfirmed report Thursday by Dubai-based
Al-Arabiya television, eight American soldiers were killed in the attack.
-
- The witnesses said a bomb exploded underneath a vehicle
that caught fire with about 10 US soldiers inside. The rest of the convoy
was pelted with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) as it struggled to make
its way to a nearby US base.
-
- Local resident Mahmud Ali, 45, said he saw eight badly
burned soldiers taken from the bombed vehicle, while Yussif Ali, 40, no
relation, said he saw four. But there was no official confirmation of any
deaths.
-
- A deafening explosion was heard from the US base outside
the town, where large stocks of munitions are stored. But there was no
immediate word on the cause or the consequences.
-
- Two Iraqi civilians were reported hurt in the attacks,
witnesses said. But there was no word on how they were wounded.
-
- The US military in Baghdad said it had no immediate report
of the incident, which came amid a spate of attacks on US forces a day
after a purported audiotaped message from Saddam Hussein exhorted Iraqis
to continued resistance.
-
- It also came with tensions high in the region, with US
troops shooting dead a teenager late Wednesday in Fallujah, 30 kilometers
(19 miles) to the east, where they mistakenly killed nine Iraqi security
men five days earlier.
-
- Mahmud Ali said the convoy was hit while traveling through
the town en route from Fallujah to Ramadi, two hotsport Sunni towns west
of the capital.
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- "A bomb exploded underneath a troop transport. It
caught fire. The remainder of the convoy tried to continue and was hit
by rocket-propelled grenades 500 meters (yards) away," he said.
-
- An American helicopter circled the area, apparently poised
to evacuate the wounded but did not land, the witnesses said.
-
- The Americans again cut off the road. Four or five vehicles
continued on their way and came under more RPG fire four kilometers (2.5
miles) away, and another vehicle was set ablaze, according to Yussif Ali.
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- The Americans sealed off the area and called in reinforcments.
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- Copyright © 2003 Agence France Presse. All rights
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of Agence France Presse.
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