Fourteen Marines, civilian killed in bombing

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A roadside bomb blast killed 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter Wednesday as they rode in a vehicle near Haditha, Iraq, U.S. military officials said.

The military said the bomb struck the amphibious assault vehicle about 1 mile (about 2 kilometers) south of Haditha, a city along the Euphrates River about 135 miles (217 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. The military said one Marine was wounded.

The 14 Marines were all attached to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), the Pentagon said.

The six sniper team members were killed in a firefight near Haditha. A suicide car bomb killed a seventh Marine Monday in nearby Hit.

In the past 10 days, 43 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq. That brings the number of U.S. troops killed in the war to 1,820, according to U.S. military reports.

Haditha and Hit are Sunni Arab cities along the Euphrates River. Hit is 95 miles (152 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. U.S. and Iraqi troops recently have been trying to clear insurgents out of both cities.

The 21 Marines were killed this week by "a very lethal and, unfortunately, adaptable enemy" in towns along the Euphrates River, said Brig Gen. Carter Ham at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.

"They are dangerous and they certainly have a capability," Ham said. "But whether or not they have an ability to freely operate in that area, I think not."

U.S. journalist found dead
U.S. freelance journalist Steven Vincent was found shot to death in the southern Iraqi city of Basra early Wednesday, officials said.

Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog group, condemned the killing, saying "Vincent's death brings to 64 the number of journalists and media assistants killed in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003."

A Basra police official said Vincent and his female interpreter, Nuriya Tiays, had been abducted about 12:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. Tuesday) in the Ashar area of central Basra.

Vincent's body was found about a 10-minute drive from the place where he and Tiays were kidnapped, the official said. Tiays was shot in the chest and was being treated in a hospital.

Vincent was in Basra writing a book about the history of the city. He also maintained an Internet blog about his life in Iraq.

The New York Times published on Sunday an editorial written by Vincent about the growing influence of Islamic militants in the largely Shiite city of Basra and British efforts to train new security forces. He wrote that security forces were heavily influenced by such groups as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. (Full story)

Other developments

Iraq's Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that representatives of the Iraqi, Turkish and American governments met to discuss security along the Iraqi-Turkish border in the north.

The Iraqi Islamic Party politburo on Wednesday condemned a U.S. raid Tuesday at the Baghdad home of Adnan al-Dulaimi, spokesman for the General Conference of Sunnis. The U.S. military said it believed a wanted suspect was at Dulaimi's home and he was detained for 10 minutes and treated with respect. The politburo said forces "messed around with the contents of the house, terrorized women and children, tied Dr. Dulaimi's hands and blindfolded him for not a short time."

Two Iraqi police officers were assassinated within 12 hours of each other in Baghdad, police said Wednesday. The first police officer was killed about 9 p.m. Tuesday, when gunmen opened fire on his car in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Amiriya as he returned home, police said. Gunmen killed the second police officer about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday as he left home in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Jami'a, police said.

The Pentagon on Wednesday said a committee on transferring security responsibilities from U.S. authorities to Iraqi forces held its first meeting Tuesday in Baghdad. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita, said the Joint Commission for Conditions-Based Transition "developed a work plan on how they're going to conduct their activities. They'll have a smaller working group that'll meet twice weekly," and they will make recommendations to Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari by September 26.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html

nobody said iraq is safe and secure, it isnt everyone knows that. if anyone says that it is within the next month they deserve a nice bitch slappin courtesy of tadpole and onthefence.

I'll second that!

"The insurgency is in it's last throes." - Vice President Dick Cheney, June 23 2005

The insurgency is going to wait them out, they know America is the only power in Iraq right now. They can keep picking U.S. troops off until it's decided that we give up, or by some miraculous chance, the insurgency gives up (don't count on it, boys and girls).

The only guerilla war we've ever won was the American revolution.

And that's because the guerrillas were on our side...

You see, that's why I seconded that, if he says it again, and I am sure he will, he has earned a bitch slap, courtesy of yours truly...

Hell Yeah!

Haha. I just thought it was funny because prescott posted that "everyone knows that iraq isn't safe and secure."

"War IS terrorism." Bullshit. Terrorism is a non-state entity advancing its goals through the deliberate use of violence against non-state entities to create terror (such as Al Qaeda flying planes into the WTC, or the Chechen and Arab scum deliberately targeting children in Beslan, Russia). War is the selective use of military force by one state entity against another, with defined rules and boundaries. In war (at least when America fights one) great care is taken to ensure that civilian casualties are minimized (if not avoided altogether). Of course, the "War on Terrorism" is an ongoing battle on several fronts (including financial, political, and military options). Like the "War on Poverty" and the "War on Drugs," the "War on Terrorism" is not declared against any particular state, but it is most certainly not "terrorism"

According to your own definition the American government is by far the worst terrorist organization in the world.