thedrifter
10-13-06, 08:50 AM
9 Marines Killed In Iraq Identified
Defense Department Says All Died Fighting In Anbar Province Within The Last Week
(CBS/AP) The Department of Defense on Thursday identified nine Marines who have been killed in combat in the Al Anbar province in western Iraq over the last week.
Two of the Marines — Cpl. Derek Jones and Lance Cpl. Jeremy Sandvick Monroe — were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. They died on Oct. 8 from what the military called "wounds received while conducting combat operations." Jones was a 21-year old from Salem, Ore. Monroe, from Chinook, Mont., was 20.
Capt. Robert M. Secher, who also died on Oct. 8, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Okinawa, Japan.
Six of the Marines served with units of the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Sgt. Julian M. Arechaga, 23, of Oceanside, N.Y.; Lance Cpl. Jon E. Bowman, 21, of Dubach, La.; and Pfc. Shelby J. Feniello, 25, of Connellsville, Pa., all died Monday in Anbar province. All three were assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.
Bowman's and Feniello's families said they were told the men died when their vehicle drove over a roadside bomb or "improvised explosive device."
"They told us he had been manning a .50-caliber machine gun in a Humvee when it was hit by an IED," said Jill Puckett, Bowman's mother.
Bowman joined the Marine Corps immediately after he graduated from Summerfield High School a little more than two years ago, she said.
Feniello's family said the men were rushing to the aid of Marines involved in a gun battle with insurgents near Ramadi when the vehicle was hit.
"They just went down the wrong road," said his father, Richard Feniello.
Feniello joined the Marines shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He began his second tour of duty in Iraq a month ago after an 11-month leave, his father said.
Cpl. Bradford H. Payne, 24, of Montgomery, Ala., and Lance Cpl. John E. Hale, 20, of Shreveport, La., were killed Oct. 6 during combat in the same region, the Pentagon said. Both belonged to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.
Funeral services for Payne are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church in Montgomery. Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Leak-Memory Chapel. Payne is survived by his wife, Erin Payne, and his parents, W. Howard and Carol Payne of Pike Road.
Another member of the unit, Lance Cpl. Stephen F. Johnson, 20, of Marietta, Ga., died in combat on Sunday.
Payne and Hale's families said they, too, were told the men had been killed by a roadside bomb.
Payne's parents said the only solace in their son's death is knowing he was killed while living his dream.
"He pretty much shot for (the Marines) in the sixth grade," Howard Payne said. "That's what he wanted to do."
Hale's military career, like Feniello's, was inspired by the 2001 terrorist attacks. He graduated from high school in 2005.
"He was very moved when 9-11 happened, and that was when he made up his mind to join the Marines," his sister, Paula Moreno, said.
In other developments:
Britain's army commandersaid that the country's military is making the situation worse in Iraq and must leave the country soon, according to media reports Thursday. Gen. Richard Dannatt said "our presence exacerbates the security problems," the British Broadcasting Corp. and Sky News television reported. Both stations were citing an interview in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said that since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan about two weeks ago, attacks in Baghdad have been up 15 percent. Ramadan "historically has been a period of increased violence," he said. "We assume it will still get worse before it gets better — we expect violence to continue to increase over the next two weeks until the end of Ramadan."
According to new figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry, more than 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September — 400 more than the month before despite an intensified U.S.-Iraqi sweep aimed at reining in violence.
President Bush dismissed Wednesday as "not credible" a new U.S. study that says as many as 655,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S.-led war began. The timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics." The report was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.
The police said the family of a 29-year-old Kurdish radio reporter who was abducted a week ago had identified his body in the Baghdad morgue. Azad Mohammed Hussein was kidnapped in northeastern Baghdad by unidentified gunmen while on his way to Dar al-Salam radio headquarters in the capital's Shaab neighborhood.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused to say Thursday how long Australian troops will likely stay in Iraq. Howard was asked to put a time frame on Australia's military deployment after the Pentagon said Wednesday that it plans to keep the current level of U.S. soldiers in Iraq through 2010. "I'm not going to commit us to a particular date," Howard said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Meanwhile, 11 people were killed in an assault on a new Sunni-Arab television station in Baghdad on Thursday. The raid on the southeastern Baghdad offices of Iraq's Shaabiya satellite station came at around 7 a.m., police Maj. Mahir Hamad said.
An unknown number of gunmen pulled up at the station in seven cars, quickly stormed into the offices and opened fire, then fled, station executive director Hassan Kamil told Associated Press Television News.
Kamil said 11 people had been killed, including technicians, two guards and the head of the station's board of directors.
"A group of armed men in seven cars stormed into the building and killed a group of our colleagues, including the head of the board of directors Abdel-Raheem Nasrallah," he said.
The station moved into the building in July and has not yet gone on the air, Kamil said.
The motivation behind the attack was not immediately clear, but it was the second attack on a television station in the capital in as many weeks.
On Oct. 1, a parked car bomb blew up outside the local al-Rafidain TV station. The blast killed two pedestrians and wounded five station employees, while blowing out windows of the building and causing other damage to the offices.
Ellie
Defense Department Says All Died Fighting In Anbar Province Within The Last Week
(CBS/AP) The Department of Defense on Thursday identified nine Marines who have been killed in combat in the Al Anbar province in western Iraq over the last week.
Two of the Marines — Cpl. Derek Jones and Lance Cpl. Jeremy Sandvick Monroe — were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. They died on Oct. 8 from what the military called "wounds received while conducting combat operations." Jones was a 21-year old from Salem, Ore. Monroe, from Chinook, Mont., was 20.
Capt. Robert M. Secher, who also died on Oct. 8, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Okinawa, Japan.
Six of the Marines served with units of the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Sgt. Julian M. Arechaga, 23, of Oceanside, N.Y.; Lance Cpl. Jon E. Bowman, 21, of Dubach, La.; and Pfc. Shelby J. Feniello, 25, of Connellsville, Pa., all died Monday in Anbar province. All three were assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.
Bowman's and Feniello's families said they were told the men died when their vehicle drove over a roadside bomb or "improvised explosive device."
"They told us he had been manning a .50-caliber machine gun in a Humvee when it was hit by an IED," said Jill Puckett, Bowman's mother.
Bowman joined the Marine Corps immediately after he graduated from Summerfield High School a little more than two years ago, she said.
Feniello's family said the men were rushing to the aid of Marines involved in a gun battle with insurgents near Ramadi when the vehicle was hit.
"They just went down the wrong road," said his father, Richard Feniello.
Feniello joined the Marines shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He began his second tour of duty in Iraq a month ago after an 11-month leave, his father said.
Cpl. Bradford H. Payne, 24, of Montgomery, Ala., and Lance Cpl. John E. Hale, 20, of Shreveport, La., were killed Oct. 6 during combat in the same region, the Pentagon said. Both belonged to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division.
Funeral services for Payne are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Vaughn Forest Baptist Church in Montgomery. Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at Leak-Memory Chapel. Payne is survived by his wife, Erin Payne, and his parents, W. Howard and Carol Payne of Pike Road.
Another member of the unit, Lance Cpl. Stephen F. Johnson, 20, of Marietta, Ga., died in combat on Sunday.
Payne and Hale's families said they, too, were told the men had been killed by a roadside bomb.
Payne's parents said the only solace in their son's death is knowing he was killed while living his dream.
"He pretty much shot for (the Marines) in the sixth grade," Howard Payne said. "That's what he wanted to do."
Hale's military career, like Feniello's, was inspired by the 2001 terrorist attacks. He graduated from high school in 2005.
"He was very moved when 9-11 happened, and that was when he made up his mind to join the Marines," his sister, Paula Moreno, said.
In other developments:
Britain's army commandersaid that the country's military is making the situation worse in Iraq and must leave the country soon, according to media reports Thursday. Gen. Richard Dannatt said "our presence exacerbates the security problems," the British Broadcasting Corp. and Sky News television reported. Both stations were citing an interview in the Daily Mail newspaper.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said that since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan about two weeks ago, attacks in Baghdad have been up 15 percent. Ramadan "historically has been a period of increased violence," he said. "We assume it will still get worse before it gets better — we expect violence to continue to increase over the next two weeks until the end of Ramadan."
According to new figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry, more than 2,660 Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad in September — 400 more than the month before despite an intensified U.S.-Iraqi sweep aimed at reining in violence.
President Bush dismissed Wednesday as "not credible" a new U.S. study that says as many as 655,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S.-led war began. The timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics." The report was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.
The police said the family of a 29-year-old Kurdish radio reporter who was abducted a week ago had identified his body in the Baghdad morgue. Azad Mohammed Hussein was kidnapped in northeastern Baghdad by unidentified gunmen while on his way to Dar al-Salam radio headquarters in the capital's Shaab neighborhood.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard refused to say Thursday how long Australian troops will likely stay in Iraq. Howard was asked to put a time frame on Australia's military deployment after the Pentagon said Wednesday that it plans to keep the current level of U.S. soldiers in Iraq through 2010. "I'm not going to commit us to a particular date," Howard said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Meanwhile, 11 people were killed in an assault on a new Sunni-Arab television station in Baghdad on Thursday. The raid on the southeastern Baghdad offices of Iraq's Shaabiya satellite station came at around 7 a.m., police Maj. Mahir Hamad said.
An unknown number of gunmen pulled up at the station in seven cars, quickly stormed into the offices and opened fire, then fled, station executive director Hassan Kamil told Associated Press Television News.
Kamil said 11 people had been killed, including technicians, two guards and the head of the station's board of directors.
"A group of armed men in seven cars stormed into the building and killed a group of our colleagues, including the head of the board of directors Abdel-Raheem Nasrallah," he said.
The station moved into the building in July and has not yet gone on the air, Kamil said.
The motivation behind the attack was not immediately clear, but it was the second attack on a television station in the capital in as many weeks.
On Oct. 1, a parked car bomb blew up outside the local al-Rafidain TV station. The blast killed two pedestrians and wounded five station employees, while blowing out windows of the building and causing other damage to the offices.
Ellie