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December 13, 2004VIOLENCE
7 Marines and a G.I. Are Killed in Separate Attacks in IraqBy ROBERT F. WORTH
AGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 12 - Separate attacks over the weekend left seven marines dead in the volatile province of Anbar, and militants killed an American soldier and ambushed an Iraqi National Guard patrol in Baghdad on Sunday, military officials said.
The marines were killed Saturday and Sunday while conducting security operations in Anbar, west of Baghdad, Marine officials said, without providing details. The province contains the cities of Falluja, where American forces continue to face resistance after the offensive there last month, and Ramadi, another rebel stronghold farther to the west.
In Baghdad, the soldier was struck when a roadside bomb exploded near his patrol at about 10 a.m. Sunday in a northern district, military officials said, and he died shortly afterward at a military hospital. Three other soldiers were wounded, but later returned to duty.
Also in Baghdad, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds at an Iraqi National Guard patrol on Sunday, but none of the guardsmen were wounded, military officials said. The guardsmen returned fire, and shortly afterward American troops discovered rifles and two large mortar rounds outside a nearby mosque. The guardsmen then entered the mosque to investigate, officials said.
The attacks came a day after four police officers were killed in two attacks in central and northern Iraq, and underscored the insurgents' continuing efforts to terrorize anyone who cooperates with the Americans here. Many recent attacks have been in Baghdad, where rebels maintain the power to strike at will. Both the British and American Embassies have forbidden employees to use the road that runs from the heart of the city to the airport, after a series of deadly strikes on convoys there.
North of the capital in Samarra, another insurgent stronghold where attacks have become routine, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded near an Iraqi Army post on Sunday, and attackers later fired on the post with assault rifles, military officials said. Two passing civilians were wounded, the officials said.
Near Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's ancestral hometown, suicide bombers detonated a car laden with explosives as they approached an American M1 tank, said Master Sgt. Robert Powell, a spokesman for the First Infantry Division. The two attackers in the car were killed, but no one else was harmed, Sergeant Powell said. A dozen heavy artillery rounds, still undetonated, were in the burned car.
Near Baquba, northeast of the capital, American troops working with Iraqi police and national guard units detained more than 50 suspected insurgents in a series of raids on Saturday, military official said. The raids, which also recovered several weapons, were aimed at capturing leaders of the insurgent bands who have staged frequent attacks on American and Iraqi forces in Baquba and the surrounding towns in recent weeks, Sergeant Powell said.
In the northern city of Erbil, a car bomb exploded Sunday in the heart of the usually peaceful Kurdish territories. No one was harmed, according to Kurdish media, although Agence France-Presse said two people had been wounded.
The bombing took place near a hospital. Witnesses said the bomb had been packed into a Volkswagen.
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