Pittsburgh-area Marine is killed in Iraq

[thedrifter]

Posted on Tue, Feb. 20, 2007

Pittsburgh-area Marine is killed in Iraq
The Philadelphia Inquirer

PITTSBURGH - A Marine from the Pittsburgh area has been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, his family said.

Infantry Capt. Todd M. Siebert, who would have turned 35 next month, was killed while on patrol Friday near Anbar Province, according to his brother-in-law, Glenn Ridenour.

Siebert, who served with the Third Battalion of the Sixth Marines, was deployed to Iraq in January after visiting his family at Christmas, Ridenour said. He had previously spent 10 days in Iraq and also served in Afghanistan in 2001, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Siebert grew up in Franklin Park, about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh. He enlisted in the Marines in 1992.

For the last decade, Siebert lived at Camp Lejune, N.C., with his wife, Darcy, and their 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. - AP

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bomb kills Pittsburgh-area Marine in Iraq
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Last Updated: 02/20/2007 11:13:03 AM EST

PITTSBURGH -- A Marine from the Pittsburgh area was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, his family says.

Infantry Capt. Todd M. Siebert, who would have turned 35 next month, was on patrol Friday near Anbar Province, according to his brother-in-law, Glenn Ridenour of Pine Township.

Siebert, who served with the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Marines, was deployed to Iraq in January after visiting his family at Christmas, Ridenour said. He had previously spent 10 days in Iraq and also served in Afghanistan in 2001, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Relatives said Siebert always wanted to be in the military, often dressing like a soldier in the backyard when he was very young.

"Probably 70 percent of his life was dedicated to being in the military," said his brother, Tom Siebert. "I don't know what his driving force was. He was just amazed with it. It was just something that enthused him."

Siebert grew up in Franklin Park, about 15 miles north of Pittsburgh, and graduated in 1990 from North Allegheny High School, where he belonged to the Junior Reserve Officer Training Program. He enlisted in the Marines in 1992 and was promoted to sergeant two years later, family members said.

He received a commission as an infantry officer in 1999, when he graduated from Penn State University, where he studied criminal justice.

For the past decade, Siebert lived at Camp Lejune, N.C., with his wife, Darcy, and their 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-
old son, said his brother, Tom Siebert of Harmony, Butler County.

Siebert's parents, Thomas and Dorothy, also live in Harmony.

Altogether, nine U.S. service members have been reported killed since the beginning of the weekend. Six were killed yesterday, including five soldiers in the Baghdad area and a Marine in Anbar province.

Meanwhile, a car bomb and a suicide attacker killed at least 11 people in Baghdad today as militants showed increasing defiance to a major security operation in the capital.

More than 100 people have been killed in the Baghdad area since Sunday.

The attacks came during the busy morning rush for goods and fuel. A car rigged with explosives tore through a line of cars at a gas station in the Sadiyah district in southwestern Baghdad. Police said at least six people were killed and 14 injured in the neighborhood, which is mixed between the majority Shiites and Sunnis whose militant factions are blamed for many of the recent bombings and attacks.

Later, a suicide attacker drove a bomb-laden car into a vegetable market near a Shiite enclave in southern Baghdad. At least five people were killed and seven injured, police said. The same market in the mostly Sunni Dora district was targeted last month by three car bombs that killed 10 people.

Outside Baghdad, nearly 150 people were hospitalized complaining of breathing problems, vomiting and other ailments after a truck carrying a chlorine-based substance was hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, said Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, a military spokesman.

Two people died in the blast and the others were treated after being exposed to fumes and debris near Taji, about 12 miles northwest of Baghdad, Moussawi said. All those treated were in stable condition.

Yesterday, insurgents staged a bold daylight assault against a U.S. combat post north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring 17. The U.S. military called it a "coordinated attack" -- which began with a suicide car bombing and then gunfire on soldiers pinned down in a former Iraqi police station, where fuel storage tanks were set ablaze by the blast.

The head-on attack in the town of Tarmiyah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, was notable for both its tactics and target. Sunni insurgents have mostly used hit-and-run ambushes, roadside bombs or mortars on U.S. troops and stayed away from direct assaults on fortified military compounds to avoid U.S. firepower.

It also appeared to fit a pattern emerging among the suspected Sunni militants: trying to hit U.S. forces harder outside the capital rather than confront them on the streets during a massive American-led security operation.

Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for Iraq's Defense Ministry, blamed the attack on a cell of al-Qaida in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for many high-profile strikes. "It's their work," he said.

In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Makiki moved quickly to try to defuse a potentially explosive scandal after a Sunni woman claimed she was raped by three officers of the Shiite-dominated police.

But the government's response -- siding with the officers and trying to discredit the allegations -- threatened to bring even more backlash.

A statement by al-Makiki's office accused "certain parties" -- presumably Sunni politicians -- of fabricating the claims in an attempt to undermine security forces during the ongoing Baghdad security operation, which began last week.

The 20-year-old married woman said she was assaulted after police commandos took her into custody Sunday in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amil, accusing her of helping insurgents. She was taken to a police garrison and raped, she said.

"It has been shown after medical examinations that the woman had not been subjected to any sexual attack whatsoever and that there are three outstanding arrest warrants against her issued by security agencies," the government statement said.

The statement said the allegations were proved false and "the prime minister has ordered that the officers accused be rewarded."

There was no comment from Sunni officials, who expressed outrage over the alleged rape and demanded swift punishment. Sunnis blame the police for many of the death squad killings of Sunnis over the past two years.

In a Baghdad courtroom, six officials from Saddam Hussein's regime pleaded innocent of crimes against humanity for a crackdown on Kurds in the 1980s.

The defendants include Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," for allegedly ordering poison gas attacks during the campaign, code-named Operation Anfal, which killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds.

The trial began last year with each defendant rejecting the general allegations. The special tribunal now delivered specific charges to end the investigative phase of the proceedings. If convicted, they could face death sentences.

Saddam was a defendant in the Anfal trial but was sentenced to death after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt. He was hanged Dec. 30.

Ellie