Roadside bomb kills 5 soldiers in Mosul

Roadside bomb kills 5 soldiers in Mosul
By Kim Gamel and Qassim Abdul-Zahra - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 28, 2008 21:00:36 EST

BAGHDAD — In a daring ambush, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque in increasingly lawless Mosul. Five American soldiers were killed in the explosion — even as Iraqi troops moved into the northern city to challenge al-Qaida in Iraq.

Iraqi reinforcements, along with helicopters, tanks and armored vehicles, converged on Mosul for what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged would be a decisive battle against al-Qaida in its last major urban stronghold.

The attack Monday on the U.S. patrol — the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad — raised the Pentagon’s January death count to at least 36.

The toll so far is 56 percent higher than December’s 23 U.S. military deaths and marks the first monthly increase since August. But the figures remain well below monthly death tolls of more than 100 last spring.

Tensions in Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city, have spiked after an explosion last week in an abandoned apartment that authorities say was used to stash insurgents’ weapons and bombs. As many as 60 were killed and 200 injured.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_5dead_080128/



uhc comment: ICCC now reports 3,940 deaths in Iraq --> http://icasualties.org/oif/