One Soldier Killed, One Injured in Vehicle Accident (7/28): CentCom

http://www.centcom.mil/CENTCOMNews/news_release.asp?NewsRelease=20030787.txt

July 28, 2003
Release Number: 03-07-87


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


ONE KILLED, ONE INJURED IN A VEHICLE ACCIDENT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. Army soldier died and one was injured in a vehicle accident at approximately 2:30 p.m. on July 28, while traveling south along Highway 1 north of An Nasiriyah.

The soldiers were evacuated to a nearby medical facility.

The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The incident is under investigation.

-------------snip------------------

So, according to CentCom, there are two dead in Iraq today: One 1st Armor Division soldier killed in Baghdad when a grenade (or something) was dropped in the Humvee. This is the incident that people had earlier reported 2 deaths on. Centcom confirms only one.

Second, this vehicle accident on Highway 1 near Nasiriyah (pretty far south for an attack, in any case, unless the Shiites are getting froggy).

1 in northern iraq, 2 in baghdad grenade attack, and 1 in vehicle accident.

There are also wounded, some severely in each incident......3 incidents in last 12-16 hours, correct me if im wrong.

This really infuriating. Especially in light of Wolfowitz, making statements discounting american losses.

So, three.

There seem to have been quite a number of vehicle accidents with our troops in Iraq. And Afghanistan.

combat related. A bomb or a grenade blows up and flips the truck. The occupants get crushed and die from the truck, not the shrapnel and therefore they try to classify it as a "vehicle accident". It's bullshit...

For example, I've seen it suggested that many of these accidents occurred in vehicles that were under fire, were speeding to the scene of a combat incident, or were deliberately forced off the road by Iraqi civilian vehicles.

This seems to be borne out by the list of casualties at http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-warkilled.php

At first, the descriptions are very general. From March 22 to May 30, there are 16 fatalities described simply as "killed in a vehicle accident" and two more as "killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident." (Does this mean the first sixteen were hostile?)

After that, these phrases occur only three times, all for accidents specified as taking place in Kuwait. Instead, the descriptions are becoming increasingly more detailed:

4/10 - killed when a car exploded next to his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

4/17 - Humvee turned over.

4/25 - killed when his vehicle rolled over while traveling through rough terrain. His unit was the quick reaction force and was responding to enemy fire.

4/28 - struck by a civilian vehicle after falling out of a Humvee that swerved to avoid a civilian vehicle.

5/18 - killed when the transport truck in which he was riding rolled over.

5/21 - responding to a civilian call when his vehicle rolled over.

6/1 - Humvee rolled over.

6/6 - was part of an escort mission when the vehicle he was in hit a curb along the road and rolled over.

6/13 - armored personnel carrier threw a track and went over a 4-foot drop-off on the side of the road, causing the vehicle to roll over.

6/25 - the light armored vehicle he was traveling in rolled over.

7/1 - vehicle ran into a ditch while trying to avoid a civilian vehicle.

7/20 - riding in a vehicle that rolled over.

it is esculating beyond the point of us being able to say "that one attack" or "another attack" it is esculating into a steady drumbeat... it was an average of one both com and non-com a day then it was one combat a day, then one and a half combat a day... now it is like three combat KIA's a day. It is getting bad so quickly... I nearly cried when I saw the pciture of the wounded GI's... if I wasn't in a public computer lab I probably would have... I probably will tonight as I lay in bed listening to the BBC of new attacks... we went to high school with these people, these 18 year old were in fourth grade when I graduated from high school. and then all the iraqi civies that these boys are killing... Fuck Bush for making them murderers, fuck him to hell!
[

... by insurgents in murderous games of "chicken". The all too familar pattern has the GIs cruising on patrol when a civilian vehicle heads right for them. The driver instinctively swerves and the Humvee does what all high profile SUVs do; it rolls over causing serious injury or death to its occupants.

The Pentagon knows this is a pattern, but still classifies the deaths as "non-combat", leaving the grieving relatives to speculate on how their sons' driving skills had deteriorated since joining the military.

But now that the Army has called it an accident, the media whores can salve their conscience when they choose not to report it.