Two US soldiers confirmed dead in blast
Two US soldiers were killed when an explosion levelled part of a Baghdad building as they searched it for suspected production of “chemical munitions”.
Five soldiers were wounded in yesterday’s blast. A cheering mob of Iraqis looted their wrecked Humvees, taking away weapons and equipment.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt did not say what sort of chemical munitions were believed to be produced at the site. After the blast, there was no sign in the area of precautions against chemicals.
“Chemical munitions could mean any number of things,” including smoke grenades, he said.
Asked about reports that the raid team included members of the Iraq Survey Group – the US team searching for weapons of mass destruction in the country - General Kimmitt said only: “The inspection was by a number of coalition forces.”
He said the owner of the site was “suspected of producing and supplying chemical agents” to Iraqi insurgents, but did not elaborate.
The deaths of the two soldiers in Baghdad and a marine in Fallujah brought to 114 the number of US troops killed in combat this month – nearly as many as the 115 Americans who were killed during the two-month invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein a year ago.
The Baghdad explosion occurred when US troops broke into a building in the northern Waziriya district.
Moments later, the blast went off, levelling the front half of the single storey building and setting ablaze four Humvee 4X4s parked outside.
Two soldiers were killed and five were wounded, Gen Kimmitt said. He said the cause of the blast was being investigated, but added, “it had quite an amount of explosives there”.
A US soldier was seen being taken away on a stretcher, her chest and face severely burned.
Witnesses reported other US casualties being rushed away in ambulances as other troops closed off the area.
Several Iraqis were pulled out of the wreckage, including a woman who wept as she was carried over a man’s shoulder to safety.
Afterward, dozens of cheering teenagers started to smash the abandoned Humvees.
One child climbed on the bonnet of one of the vehicles and beat it with a stick. Iraqis stripped the vehicles of equipment, one carrying a heavy machine gun, another waving a US helmet. One man sported military headphones.
In Fallujah, meanwhile, heavy fighting broke out for several hours around a mosque despite attempts to extend a ceasefire.
One marine and eight insurgents were killed, and the mosque – which Gen Kimmitt said insurgents were firing from - was damaged.
In the south, US troops rolled into a base in Najaf to replace Spanish forces who are withdrawing and to increase pressure on the militia of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The deployment brings the Americans about three miles from holy sites at the heart of the city.
US commanders have said they will not go near the holy shrines, a move that could spark outrage among Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority.
US administrator Paul Bremer said weapons were being stockpiled in mosques, shrines and schools in Najaf.
In a message directed to residents, he warned: “This explosive situation cannot be tolerated.”
His spokesman, Dan Senor, said the mosques must be “made safe immediately” but would not elaborate on steps the coalition was ready to take to do so.
He noted that in the case of military action, “those places of worship are not protected under the Geneva Convention” if they are used to store weapons.
The US military will take over security duties in Najaf province and the neighbouring province of Qadisiyah after the withdrawal of Spanish, Dominican and Honduran forces this month, said a Polish spokesman, whose country’s forces lead multinational peacekeepers in the area.
