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Thursday, June 21, 2007

So...has the surge started yet?
Posted by Jill | 10:27 AM
Or does it only count as soon as things like this stop happening:

The U.S. military announced the deaths of 14 American troops, including five killed Thursday in a single roadside bombing that also killed four Iraqis in Baghdad.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide truck bomber struck the Sulaiman Bek city hall in a predominantly Sunni area in northern Iraq, killing at least 13 people and wounding 70, an Iraqi commander said.
[snip]

The deadliest attack was a roadside bomb that struck a convoy in northeastern Baghdad on Thursday, killing five U.S. soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi interpreter, the military said.

A rocket-propelled grenade struck a vehicle in northern Baghdad about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding three others, another statement said.

Four other U.S. soldiers were killed and one was wounded Wednesday when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in a western neighborhood in the capital, the military said separately.

Southwest of Baghdad, two U.S. soldiers were killed and four were wounded Wednesday when explosions struck near their vehicle, according to a statement earlier in the day.

Two Marines also were killed Wednesday while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said.

Bomber hits mayor’s office; 10 dead
Earlier, a suicide truck bomber struck a mayor’s office in northern Iraq, killing at least 10 people and wounding 40, an Iraqi commander said. Meanwhile, a barrage of mortar bombs hit Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, according to Reuters reporters.

The explosion in the north of the country, which occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the predominantly Sunni Arab town of Sulaiman Bek, caused part of the government building to collapse and destroyed at least four vehicles at the site, said Brig. Gen. Anwar Hamah, commander of the Iraqi army’s 2nd Brigade.

Hamah said at least 10 people were killed and 40 were wounded but he expected the casualty toll to rise as people were pulled from the rubble.

In Baghdad, several plumes of smoke could be seen rising near buildings housing the Iraqi parliament and government offices.

On the other side of the river Tigris, a thick plume of black smoke could be seen near the area where a suicide truck bomb partly demolished a Shiite mosque and killed 87 people on Tuesday. The origin of the smoke was not immediately known.

Slamming mortars

At least seven mortar rounds could be heard slamming into the Green Zone, which houses many Iraqi government ministries as well as the U.S., British and other Western embassies.

It was unclear if there were any casualties.

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