6 U.S. GIs Die in Booby-Trapped Iraq House
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A house rigged with explosives exploded in Diyala province yesterday, killing six American soldiers, making it the deadliest day for American troops in more than two months.
The American military offered few initial details about the explosion, which came as thousands of American soldiers are engaged in an offensive focused in northern Iraq to disrupt the Sunni insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The blast, which also injured four other soldiers, follows a day in which three American soldiers were shot to death in adjacent Salahuddin province. The loss of nine soldiers amounts to the deadliest two-day total for American troops since September and reflects the struggle for northern Iraq after insurgents have relocated there from other provinces.
Earlier in the day, the top American military commander in northern Iraq, Major General Mark Hertling, told reporters in Baghdad that his soldiers have faced less resistance than expected in the first stages of their operation, known as Iron Harvest.
Iron Harvest is one part of a broader American military offensive called “Phantom Phoenix,” which includes forces across the country and is intended to disrupt Al Qaeda in Iraq sanctuaries. General Hertling did not say how many soldiers were on the ground in combat operations but said all of the troops in his four-province area of northern Iraq — 24,000 American-led coalition troops, 50,000 Iraqi army soldiers, 80,000 Iraqi policemen, and some of the 15,000 American-backed militiamen — are involved in the effort in some way.
[Elsewhere, a new survey estimates that 151,000 Iraqis died of violence in the three years following the American-led invasion of the country. Roughly 9 out of 10 of those deaths were a consequence of American military operations, insurgent attacks, and sectarian warfare.
The survey, conducted by the Iraqi government and the World Health Organization, also found a 60% increase in nonviolent deaths — everything from childhood infections to kidney failure — during the period. The results, which will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine at the end of the month, are the latest of several widely divergent estimates of mortality attributed to the Iraq war. ]
