Humvee Accident Claims Two Soldiers' Lives in Iraq

Officials provided no further details. The soldiers' names are being withheld until their families are notified.

In other news from Iraq, soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), were attacked in two separate incidents that left three insurgents dead, one wounded and another detained Jan. 16 in northern Iraq.

Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, were patrolling in western Mosul when insurgents drove up to their convoy and began shooting. Two insurgents were wounded in the counterattack. Soldiers captured the third insurgent, who tried to flee. The wounded insurgents were taken to a hospital, with one pronounced dead on arrival.

Insurgents fired from a vehicle on soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, who were patrolling southwest of Mosul. The soldiers returned fire, killing both insurgents in the vehicle. After the attack, soldiers found a cache of weapons and munitions including rocket launchers, rifles, pistols, grenades, mortar rounds and ammunition. No Multinational Forces injuries were reported.

Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), also discovered a weapons and munitions cache in northern Iraq on Jan. 16.

Violence directed at Iraqi security forces continued today. Seven Iraqi police officers were killed and 28 others were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint outside the Bayji police station. South of Baqubah, seven Iraqi army soldiers and a civilian were killed when insurgents attacked their vehicle using rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Also, a soldier from the 2nd Iraqi Ministry of the Interior Commando Battalion was injured Jan. 16 when his patrol vehicle struck a land mine near Samarra. The soldier was taken to a Multinational Force medical facility and was reported to be in stable condition.

Three civilian trucks were damaged and the drivers report that one of the drivers is missing after insurgents attacked their vehicles with RPGs and small arms northeast of Baqubah on Jan. 16. A 1st Infantry Division Patrol from 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, responded to secure the site. The trucks were carrying military equipment to a base from the Turkish border when attacked. Two of the trucks were destroyed, and one received minor damage.

Multi-National Forces from 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), detained 23 individuals during operations in northern Iraq on Jan. 16. Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, while conducting a cordon-and-search operation in western Mosul, detained 16 people suspected of insurgent activities. A cordon-and-search operation in eastern Mosul netted three more suspects. Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, conducted a cordon-and-search operation south of Mosul and captured two suspected insurgents. Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, detained two people suspected of bombing an oil refinery south of Mosul.

Multinational forces detained a suspected insurgent during a search at a business establishment in Balad Ruz on Jan. 16. The same day, three people were detained after aerial observation of possible black-marketing of fuel near Dujayl. Their vehicle was followed and observed stopping at a house. Task Force Danger soldiers searched the home and confiscated three AK-47 assault rifles, a pistol and 12 ammunition magazines.

Iraqi soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Battalion, working with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force near Fallujah, completed two patrols and found a weapons cache and grenades, and detained two people Jan. 16. The 8th Battalion, also in Fallujah, found a small weapons cache on the same day.