US troops kill 11 in ambush amid low-key July 4 celebrations

US troops killed 11 Iraqis who ambushed a convoy outside Baghdad yesterday. It was one of the most intense clashes yet in the daily grind of attacks on American forces.

The ambush came hours after mortars hit a nearby base, wounding 18 US soldiers, and a sniper shot and killed a US soldier guarding the Baghdad museum, the military said.

The insurgency has raised fears of a political and military quagmire just two months after US President George W Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1. At least 27 US troops have been killed in hostile fire since Bush’s statement.

Yesterday’s ambush came on a road near Balad, 55 miles north of Baghdad, when 11 men attacked a convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, the military said.

Soldiers of the army’s 4th Infantry Division fired back, killing all the men. None of the Americans was injured. US forces have frequently been ambushed on the roads of central Iraq usually by small groups of insurgents who fire small arms or grenades.

In another bold attack, four mortar rounds rocked a huge US base near Balad late on Thursday, injuring 18 soldiers, said Major Edward Bryja, of the army’s 3rd Corps Support Command. Flares and tracer bullets sliced across the night sky after the blasts.

Two soldiers were seriously injured, with one having surgery in a hospital located at the base and another evacuated for treatment, Bryja said. Others suffered cuts and small punctures from flying shrapnel, and nine soldiers quickly went back to duty, army officials said.

“This is the first time the base was attacked and the first time we’ve seen mortars,” said Sergeant Grant Calease, who said he and other soldiers would nonetheless carry on with a July 4 steak barbecue.

The wounded soldiers belonged to Task Force Iron Horse, a 33,000- member unit that has been conducting raids in mainly Sunni Muslim central Iraq the latest sweep aimed at putting down insurgents.

Yesterday, attackers detonated an explosive on a road in Baghdad’s western outskirts, injuring three passengers in a car and two US soldiers travelling in a Humvee (army vehicle) convoy.

On Thursday evening, a sniper shot and killed a US soldier manning the gunner’s hatch of a Bradley fighting vehicle outside the national museum, Pruden said. His name was not immediately available. Despite the attacks, many of the US troops planned July 4 barbecues at bases around the country.

“We should be celebrating with our families. It is sad. Everybody wants to go home. I am glad we came here to liberate Iraq, but I think it is time for soldiers to see their families,” said Sergeant Thas Eagans from Irving, Texas.

A few were invited to join Arnold Schwarzenegger at Baghdad International Airport for a screening of the actor’s latest movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.