[A-List] Iraq: the resistance proliferates

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

American special operations soldier is killed
CAMERON SIMPSON
The Herald, 27 June 2003

AN American special operations soldier was killed and eight injured
yesterday in an attack south-west of Baghdad.

Amid spiralling assaults on coalition forces, an explosion on a road to
Baghdad's airport killed one US soldier and wounded another while two Iraqis
in an American convoy died in a grenade attack, authorities said.

US defence officials in Washington said two American soldiers also appeared
to have been abducted in Iraq. The men and their Humvee vehicle had been
stationed at an observation post near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad,
when they went missing on Wednesday night, according to Pentagon officials.

A statement from US Central Command said the attack that killed the special
operations soldier occurred in the morning, but gave no further details.

The US military also said that one Marine was killed and two were injured
the day before when their vehicle - part of a rapid-reaction force
dispatched in response to an ambush - rolled over. Three Marines were
wounded on Wednesday in that ambush in Hilla, 45 miles south of Baghdad.

The attack on the road leading to Baghdad airport apparently involved an
explosive device placed on the road, It appeared the device was detonated
either by remote control or a trip wire.

The airport road, heavily used by US forces, has been the scene of a series
of ambushes using trip wires dangling from overpasses or grenades tossed
from bridges.

In western Baghdad, a four-vehicle convoy came under a grenade attack,
killing two Iraqi electricity authority employees. The convoy included US
Humvees at the front and the rear and two Iraqi civilian vehicles in the
middle.

At least 20 US soldiers have been killed in hostile fire since major combat
was officially declared over in last month.

A US military spokesman, Major William Thurmond, played down recent attacks
as a "spike" and not a trend.

"There have been more attacks recently but it's probably premature to say
this is part of a pattern. We've kicked open the nests of some of these bad
guys."

Elsewhere, controversy continued over the coalition's justifications for
launching the war. At the United Nations, officials said the UN terrorism
committee had found no evidence to support Bush administration claims of a
link between Iraq and al Qaeda, and that the US had provided the committee
with no proof.

The committee, charged with investigating al Qaeda and the former Taliban
rulers of Afghanistan, circulated a draft report on progress made to shut
Osama bin Laden's network.

"Nothing has come to our notice that would indicate links between Iraq and
al Qaeda," said Michael Chandler, the committee's chief investigator.

He and others said that the first they heard of any links was during
secretary of state Colin Powell's February presentation to the Security
Council ahead of the Iraq war.