thedrifter
06-21-04, 02:08 PM
Insurgents gun down four Americans in Ramadi, South Korea rejects kidnappers' demands
By Robert H. Reid
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:24 a.m. June 21, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents gunned down four U.S. service members west of Baghdad on Monday, and South Korea said it would go ahead with plans to send thousands more troops to Iraq despite a threat by Iraqi kidnappers to kill a South Korean seen pleading for his life on a videotape.
Elsewhere, Iraq resumed oil exports Monday, six days after attackers blasted pipelines carrying crude oil to the Basra terminal on the Persian Gulf. Iraqi officials have announced stepped-up measures to protect the oil industry – the foundation of the nation's economy.
A videotape delivered Monday to Associated Press Television News showed four Americans in uniform lying dead in what appeared to be a walled compound in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad. One of the Americans was slumped in the corner of a wall.
The bodies had no flak vests – mandatory for U.S. troops operating in contested areas – and at least one was missing a boot. One fieldpack was left open next to a body as if the attackers had looted the dead before fleeing.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, confirmed the killings but gave few details. He said a U.S. quick reaction force found the bodies after the troops failed to report to their headquarters as required.
American officials had been concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Ramadi, located along a belt of Sunni militancy running westward from Baghdad along the Euphrates River.
Last week, seven Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members were arrested for planting a roadside bomb that killed a policeman and wounded seven civilians in Ramadi.
Most of the kidnappings of foreigners over the past two months are believed to have occurred along that belt.
The South Korean government said it would go ahead with plans to send another 3,000 troops to Iraq despite a threat by an Islamic extremist group to kill a South Korean man seen begging for his life on a videotape broadcast Sunday night by the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera.
"Korean soldiers, please get out of here," the man, Kim Sun-il, screamed in English. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important."
Kim, 33, who works for a trading company in Baghdad, was believed to have been kidnapped about 10 days ago. The kidnappers claimed to be from the Monotheism and Jihad group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have ties to al-Qaeda.
Once the deployment is complete, South Korea will be the largest coalition partner after the United States and Britain. South Korea now has 600 military medics and engineers in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
South Korean medics suspended free medical treatment to Iraqi patients because of security concerns stemming from the kidnapping, said Maj. Chun Heung-soo, a Defense Ministry spokesman in Seoul. He said the action should not be interpreted as a protest.
Hundreds of protesters attended a candlelight vigil in Seoul Monday to demand the government reverse its decision to send soldiers to Iraq.
On Saturday, a U.S. airstrike destroyed a house in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, that the United States said was a hideout for the al-Zarqawi group. Kimmitt told reporters Monday the attack killed "key personnel in the Zarqawi network" but he would not confirm that any foreign fighters were among the dead.
Iraqi officials in Fallujah, long one of the centers of anti-American militancy, maintain that the attack killed only Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi Health Ministry said at least 17 people died.
The recent kidnappings and attacks appear aimed at undermining the interim Iraqi government set to take power June 30, when the U.S.-led occupation formally ends. U.S. and Iraqi officials have vowed to go ahead with the transfer despite the violence.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said that by the end of the week, all Iraqi government ministries would be under full Iraqi control.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has promised to crush the terrorist threat and said Sunday his administration was considering martial law in some areas to restore law and order.
"They are trying to destroy our country, and we are not going to allow this," Allawi said Sunday.
But the interim president sought to temper those remarks Monday, saying martial law was only one of several steps under consideration.
President Ghazi al-Yawer said during a meeting with a U.S. congressional delegation that Allawi's remarks were in response to a "hypothetical question asked to a member of the government."
"It's our right," al-Yawer said, while adding it was not certain to be employed. "But it's an option that we are not ruling out. If we need to do so in order to preserve our security we will do so in a way that will not pose problems to the Iraqi public."
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded about 30 miles south of Mosul, killing four IraqDi contractors and wounding four others.
Resumption of Iraqi oil exports followed intense efforts to repair the damaged pipeline. The country's other major export line, which runs from the northern oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, has been out of service since May 27 because of sabotage.
Coalition officials said that tankers were being loaded as of Monday morning at the Basra port. Analysts and traders said halting exports costs Iraq about $65 million in lost oil revenue daily.
Iran said Monday it had impounded three British military vessels and detained eight armed crewmen in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf, for entering Iranian territorial waters.
Britain confirmed it had lost contact with a patrol of a three small vessels that Royal Navy personnel were delivering to an Iraqi river patrol. It said Britain was in contact with Iran to determine the circumstances of the seizure.
The waterway that divides Iran and Iraq has long been a source of tension. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.
Monday's incident follows a strain in Iranian-British relations after London last week helped draft a resolution rebuking Iran for past nuclear cover-ups.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040621-1124-iraq.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/images/040621killed.jpg
This is a frame from a videotape, which was delivered to Associated Press Television News, showing the bodies of U.S. service members, still in uniform, after four were killed in the Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi, Iraq. Residents said the Americans were killed in an ambush with Iraqi resistance fighters but no further details were available.
Ellie:mad:
By Robert H. Reid
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:24 a.m. June 21, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents gunned down four U.S. service members west of Baghdad on Monday, and South Korea said it would go ahead with plans to send thousands more troops to Iraq despite a threat by Iraqi kidnappers to kill a South Korean seen pleading for his life on a videotape.
Elsewhere, Iraq resumed oil exports Monday, six days after attackers blasted pipelines carrying crude oil to the Basra terminal on the Persian Gulf. Iraqi officials have announced stepped-up measures to protect the oil industry – the foundation of the nation's economy.
A videotape delivered Monday to Associated Press Television News showed four Americans in uniform lying dead in what appeared to be a walled compound in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 60 miles west of Baghdad. One of the Americans was slumped in the corner of a wall.
The bodies had no flak vests – mandatory for U.S. troops operating in contested areas – and at least one was missing a boot. One fieldpack was left open next to a body as if the attackers had looted the dead before fleeing.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief, confirmed the killings but gave few details. He said a U.S. quick reaction force found the bodies after the troops failed to report to their headquarters as required.
American officials had been concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Ramadi, located along a belt of Sunni militancy running westward from Baghdad along the Euphrates River.
Last week, seven Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members were arrested for planting a roadside bomb that killed a policeman and wounded seven civilians in Ramadi.
Most of the kidnappings of foreigners over the past two months are believed to have occurred along that belt.
The South Korean government said it would go ahead with plans to send another 3,000 troops to Iraq despite a threat by an Islamic extremist group to kill a South Korean man seen begging for his life on a videotape broadcast Sunday night by the Arab satellite television station Al-Jazeera.
"Korean soldiers, please get out of here," the man, Kim Sun-il, screamed in English. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I know that your life is important, but my life is important."
Kim, 33, who works for a trading company in Baghdad, was believed to have been kidnapped about 10 days ago. The kidnappers claimed to be from the Monotheism and Jihad group led by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to have ties to al-Qaeda.
Once the deployment is complete, South Korea will be the largest coalition partner after the United States and Britain. South Korea now has 600 military medics and engineers in the southern city of Nasiriyah.
South Korean medics suspended free medical treatment to Iraqi patients because of security concerns stemming from the kidnapping, said Maj. Chun Heung-soo, a Defense Ministry spokesman in Seoul. He said the action should not be interpreted as a protest.
Hundreds of protesters attended a candlelight vigil in Seoul Monday to demand the government reverse its decision to send soldiers to Iraq.
On Saturday, a U.S. airstrike destroyed a house in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, that the United States said was a hideout for the al-Zarqawi group. Kimmitt told reporters Monday the attack killed "key personnel in the Zarqawi network" but he would not confirm that any foreign fighters were among the dead.
Iraqi officials in Fallujah, long one of the centers of anti-American militancy, maintain that the attack killed only Iraqi civilians. The Iraqi Health Ministry said at least 17 people died.
The recent kidnappings and attacks appear aimed at undermining the interim Iraqi government set to take power June 30, when the U.S.-led occupation formally ends. U.S. and Iraqi officials have vowed to go ahead with the transfer despite the violence.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said that by the end of the week, all Iraqi government ministries would be under full Iraqi control.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has promised to crush the terrorist threat and said Sunday his administration was considering martial law in some areas to restore law and order.
"They are trying to destroy our country, and we are not going to allow this," Allawi said Sunday.
But the interim president sought to temper those remarks Monday, saying martial law was only one of several steps under consideration.
President Ghazi al-Yawer said during a meeting with a U.S. congressional delegation that Allawi's remarks were in response to a "hypothetical question asked to a member of the government."
"It's our right," al-Yawer said, while adding it was not certain to be employed. "But it's an option that we are not ruling out. If we need to do so in order to preserve our security we will do so in a way that will not pose problems to the Iraqi public."
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded about 30 miles south of Mosul, killing four IraqDi contractors and wounding four others.
Resumption of Iraqi oil exports followed intense efforts to repair the damaged pipeline. The country's other major export line, which runs from the northern oilfields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, has been out of service since May 27 because of sabotage.
Coalition officials said that tankers were being loaded as of Monday morning at the Basra port. Analysts and traders said halting exports costs Iraq about $65 million in lost oil revenue daily.
Iran said Monday it had impounded three British military vessels and detained eight armed crewmen in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf, for entering Iranian territorial waters.
Britain confirmed it had lost contact with a patrol of a three small vessels that Royal Navy personnel were delivering to an Iraqi river patrol. It said Britain was in contact with Iran to determine the circumstances of the seizure.
The waterway that divides Iran and Iraq has long been a source of tension. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.
Monday's incident follows a strain in Iranian-British relations after London last week helped draft a resolution rebuking Iran for past nuclear cover-ups.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040621-1124-iraq.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/images/040621killed.jpg
This is a frame from a videotape, which was delivered to Associated Press Television News, showing the bodies of U.S. service members, still in uniform, after four were killed in the Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi, Iraq. Residents said the Americans were killed in an ambush with Iraqi resistance fighters but no further details were available.
Ellie:mad: