:(

[SheWolf]

from msnbc:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4824213/


At least 9 U.S. troops killed in Iraq attacks
41 wounded on Sunday; Myers says Iraqi general may be replaced

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET May 02, 2004BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least nine U.S. service members were killed in Iraq on Sunday, the military said, signaling the possibility that U.S. casualties in Iraq may continue at the same grisly pace as in April, until now the bloodiest month since the conflict began 13 months ago.

News of the attacks comes after the top U.S. military commander said that reports that Gen. Jasim Mohamed Saleh, a former general in Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard, would take charge in the volatile Iraqi city of Fallujah, have been “very, very inaccurate.”

Six U.S. service members were killed Sunday and another 30 were wounded in a mortar attack near the western city of Ramadi, about 60 miles west of Baghdad, in Anbar province. That province includes such flashpoint cities as Fallujah in the Sunni Triangle, long a hotbed of Iraqi resistance.

A military spokeswoman gave no further details and did not say whether the victims were Marines or Army soldiers, but most Americans stationed there are Marines.

Another U.S. soldier was killed Sunday and 10 more were wounded in a bomb and small arms attack on a coalition base near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

An attack in northwest Baghdad killed two other soldiers on Sunday and wounded two Iraqi security officers and another American, the military said.

Corrected count
Overnight, Shiite militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades near the southern city of Amarah, 180 miles south of Baghdad. Two soldiers were killed on Saturday, the military said. Through Saturday night and into Sunday morning, Iraqis set fire to the long line of abandoned vehicles, jumping on the hoods and beating them with sticks.

Earlier reports from the military stated Sunday's death toll was as high as 11, a result of Saturday's casualties near Amarah tabluated for Sunday.

The latest fatalities raised the U.S. death toll to 151 since a wave of violence began on April 1. At least 753 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Up to 1,200 Iraqis were also killed in April.

U.S.: Ex-Saddam general to be replaced
Meanwhile, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday that Saleh, a former general in the Republican Guard, is unlikely to take charge in Fallujah and is still being vetted to lead a possible Iraqi peacekeeping force.

“There’s another general they’re looking at,” Gen. Richard B. Myers told ABC’s This Week. “My guess is, it will not be General Saleh. ... He will not be their leader ... He may have a role to play, but that vetting has yet to take place,” said Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Anja Niedringhaus / AP
Iraqi Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh gestures from his car Friday as he leaves Fallujah after U.S. commanders met with local leaders to work out details of a deal intended to lift the monthlong siege of the city.
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Myers’ appearance on three different Sunday morning political talk shows seemed calculated to counter reporting out of Iraq suggesting the U.S. military had suffered a virtual defeat in Fallujah and had turned to Saddam’s former military chiefs to salvage the situation.

“No, it’s not a reversal,” Myers said on ABC of his remarks that failed to confirm Saleh as military chief in Fallujah. “I think the — again, as I said, the reporting on this has been very, very bad and way ahead of the facts.”

Myers, who said Marines have not withdrawn from Fallujah, did not respond to a question on Fox News Sunday on whether Saleh, a former general who once served in Saddam’s elite Republican Guard, had been involved with the brutal suppression of Iraq’s Kurdish minority, but he reiterated that Saleh was not in command of the forces inside Fallujah.

“The reporting to date has been ... very, very inaccurate,” Myers told Fox News. “We’ve gotten a lot of help from tribal sheiks and other folks.”

Meanwhile, Saleh set up the possibility of fresh confrontations with U.S. forces when he denied the presence of foreign fighters in Fallujah.

“There are no foreign fighters in Fallujah, and the local tribal leaders have told me the same,” Saleh told Reuters in an interview.

U.S. Marines turned to Saleh when he offered to help restore order to Fallujah, after a month-long siege. But his U.S. backers say foreign Islamic guerrillas are stoking the insurgency by up to 2,000 fighters in the city, combatants once among the most loyal to Saddam.

Najaf attack
Also Sunday, suspected Shiite militiamen fired mortar bombs and grenades at U.S. forces in the holy town of Najaf in southern Iraq overnight, witnesses said.

There were no reports of casualties in the Najaf attack, which also targeted the city's U.S.-led administration office.

Tension was running high in and around Najaf, where militiamen of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr control most of the area.

Al-Sadr is wanted by U.S. forces for the murder of a rival Shiite cleric a year ago. His followers rose up against U.S.-led occupation forces in several towns and cities last month after one of his aides was arrested for an alleged role in the same murder.

Reuters: Aide to al-Sadr held in Hilla
Two Iraqis were killed and an aide to al-Sadr was arrested in a raid by troops of U.S.-led occupation forces in the Iraqi city of Hilla, residents of the city and Sadr aides said on Sunday, Reuters reported.

Officials of the Polish-led contingent of multinational troops deployed in the area said they had no information on the incident, as did a spokeswoman for the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad.

Hilla residents said the soldiers stormed a meeting of religious students and tribal representatives in the city, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, on Saturday, and opened fire.

Television footage of the site of the raid early on Sunday showed pools of blood and human remains, as well as bullet holes pockmarking interior walls of the building where the meeting was held.

An aide to Sadr — whose followers rose up last month against U.S. troops in Baghdad and allied forces in southern Iraq after the arrest of one of his lieutenants — said the raid was part of a U.S. campaign against the cleric, who has denounced the occupation of Iraq.

“It is in a pattern of humiliation of the men of religion,” Sadr’s aide Sheikh Qays al-Khazali told Reuters Television in the Shi’ite shrine city of Najaf. “The occupation forces continue to violate human rights and the rights of the Iraqi people.”

U.S. forces have vowed to capture or kill 30-year-old al-Sadr, who hails from one of the most respected families in Najaf, the theological center of many Shiites worldwide. The uprising has largely died down but his militia, the Mehdi Army, still controls Najaf, nearby Kufa and Karbala and maintains a presence in many other towns including Baghdad.

Little hope for peaceful solution
Representatives of Najaf's tribes and the police chief held talks on Saturday with al-Sadr's aides in an attempt to find a peaceful end to the standoff.

But an al-Sadr aide held out little hope for the success of the mediation. An official with the U.S.-led administration denied reports that negotiations were on the basis of a five-point plan.

"The coalition is not negotiating with anyone on the basis of the five-point plan," Phil Kosnett, the Coalition Provisional Authority representative in Najaf, told Reuters on Sunday.

"The coalition bottom line has not changed. Sadr has to face justice and the Mehdi Army has to go away."

He said there were no direct contacts between the U.S. and al-Sadr. "There are people we talk to and al-Sadr's people talk to."

Al-Khazali said the bid by the tribal representatives and police chief to find a peaceful resolution was doomed.

"All political attempts to resolve the issue peacefully have failed. ... It is because of the American side and not us. We prefer negotiations and want to avoid bloodshed," he said.

Al-Khazali said the mediators were told by al-Sadr's aides: "You will fail as others failed but we bless your efforts."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

[namgrunt]

Hang on, SheWolf.

I won't tell you not to worry, but I will tell you not to lose heart.
Your boy is surrounded by daily prayers. Keep the Faith and believe.

[SheWolf]

Originally posted by namgrunt
Hang on, SheWolf.

I won't tell you not to worry, but I will tell you not to lose heart.
Your boy is surrounded by daily prayers. Keep the Faith and believe.

I'm trying but it's hard especially when we haven't heard from him in a while,,, I know,, I know,, he's in a combat situation but he had been able to call his wife at least twice a week, I guess we've been spoiled that way, but when you put that together with the news... you get "worry" at least when you are a mom

[Sgt Sostand]

i dont understand this war i dont know why they want just go and clean house and it will be over every time i turn on Cnn it one or 2 US dead its sad and i am geting ****ed off at the way thing going

[USMC-FO]

Hang tough "SheWolfe" we understand these are particularly hard times for you and your family. You have an entire extended family with you in our thoughts.

[SheWolf]

Originally posted by USMC-FO
Hang tough "SheWolfe" we understand these are particularly hard times for you and your family. You have an entire extended family with you in our thoughts.

thanks

[Osotogary]

Shewolf,
Wow, your son was able to call his wife at least twice a week? That's paradise!
My Marine son called twice since "over there" and I missed both his calls. My other son called about once every five weeks, last time being three weeks ago, more or less. Last time was from Basra.
I know that you are worried. Shoot, I am worried as well. Hang in there.
I can't get over the twice a week phone calls. You have been very, very fortunate.
I'll say a couple for your son and his fellow Marines this evening.
I hope your son calls you or his wife as soon as circumstances allow.
Take care.

[SheWolf]

Originally posted by Osotogary
Shewolf,
Wow, your son was able to call his wife at least twice a week? That's paradise!
My Marine son called twice since "over there" and I missed both his calls. My other son called about once every five weeks, last time being three weeks ago, more or less. Last time was from Basra.
I know that you are worried. Shoot, I am worried as well. Hang in there.
I can't get over the twice a week phone calls. You have been very, very fortunate.
I'll say a couple for your son and his fellow Marines this evening.
I hope your son calls you or his wife as soon as circumstances allow.
Take care.

it might have been once a week, but I was amazed at that too,,, wouldn't want his phone bill! lol,, I did send some money in a care package to help him .... and I know and do feel lucky that even though he only called me every couple of weeks or so,, I could hear of him through her...

but with getting used to that often of a contact has spoiled me and causes me to worry when it's less.. the first time he was over there he had email,,, doesn't have it this time ...

anyway,, thanks for the support........... and I will add your sons to my prayer list (although they have been there all along as I pray for everyone over there)

take care...