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WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2004 – The roadside bombs favored by insurgents in Iraq continue to be deadly, as one U.S. soldier was killed and two were injured south of Mosul on Aug. 29 as their convoy detonated an improvised explosive device.
The wounded soldiers were taken to a military hospital in Mosul for treatment. One injured soldier was released after treatment and the other was reported to be in stable condition. Elsewhere, multinational forces cleared and destroyed 44 improvised explosive devices in Najaf over the past two days, and other reconstruction projects continue across Iraq. Since March, funds from about $34 million in donations received from a Kuwaiti- based humanitarian organization have been distributed to Iraqi ministries, hospitals, medical clinics, schools, orphanages, non-governmental agencies, and Iraqi citizens. The U.S. Agency for International Development provided funding through the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion for an educational and recreational youth center in Karadah. The center if slated to open Sept. 4 and will offer computer- instruction classes, Internet access, and a neighborhood library for an estimated 2,400 Baghdad youth each week. Iraqi contractors began rehabilitating a teaching hospital in Najaf on Aug. 28. The hospital is slated to reopen by Sept. 21. Violence continued in Iraq, as well. Four separate mortar attacks were reported today in al Amarah, northwest of Basra. Eight rounds landed outside the local coalition base. No injuries were reported. Iraqi police and multinational forces thwarted four roadside bomb attacks in northern Iraq Aug. 30. Iraqi police foiled three such attacks when they investigated suspicious items on roadsides, two in the Thubat area, and one in the Noor neighborhood. Two of the devices consisted of 122 mm artillery rounds connected to timers. An Iraqi ordnance-disposal team detonated the bombs. U.S. Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers from the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment found a roadside bomb about 35 kilometers south of Mosul when they noticed wires protruding from the top of an object near the side of a road. The Americans cordoned off the area and detonated the device. (Compiled from news releases from the Coalition Press Information Center, Baghdad.)
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