U.S. Troops Killed, Wounded in Iraq Blast

02/25/2005

TARMIYAH, Iraq (AP) - An explosion near a group of U.S. soldiers north of the Iraqi capital Friday killed and wounded several troops, the U.S. military said. Witnesses said they saw about a dozen injured soldiers lying on the ground.

Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a spokesman for the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, confirmed “there were soldiers killed and wounded” in an explosion, but he had no other information.

“We’re trying to figure out what the details are,” Kent told The Associated Press.

Witnesses said the attack took place around midday in Tarmiyah, 20 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Residents saw about a dozen injured U.S. soldiers lying on blood-splattered ground after the attack.

“I was heading to our house ... There was a group of American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were parking behind them,” said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. “I heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying.”

He said he was about 200 yards way and believed explosives were hidden among the palm trees overlooking the street.

Nahed and Alaa Nagy, 22, who works as a guard at a nearby factory, said helicopters landed in the area 15 minutes after the explosion and took the injured soldiers away. Both said they heard gunfire after the incident.

The road was immediately blocked off by the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces.

As of Thursday, at least 1,486 members of the U.S. military had died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.