9 US Troops Killed in Iraq on Sunday
Reuters is reporting that guerrillas launched a mortar attack on US troops at their base near Ramadi in al-Anbar province, killing 6 immediately and wounding 30, many of them seriously, so that the death toll will probably rise.
At a US base near the northern city of Kirkuk, guerrillas set off a roadside bomb and fired assault rifles at US base, killing one American soldier and wounding 10. In northwest Baghdad, guerrillas killed two US soldiers and two Iraqi troops of the Civil Defense Corps. Near Amara, guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade and used small arms to attack a US convoy, killing two American soldiers. There has recently been fighting at Amara between British troops and the Shiite Army of the Mahdi.
Iraq news analyis: I have given a few press interviews lately for pieces that have now appeared: Jim Lobe, “Americans on the Brink of Strategic Defeat in Iraq?” and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder, “Following the Changing Winds of War”.