Insurgents fired mortar rounds at a headquarters used by U.S. troops and Iraqi forces in the city of Samarra on Thursday, destroying the building and killing four U.S. soldiers, the U.S. military said. An Iraqi guardsman was also killed and a fifth U.S. soldier was unaccounted for. Twenty other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the 10:30 a.m. attack, said Maj. Neal O’Brien, the spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division. U.S. troops secured the area around the collapsed building. American soldiers responded to the attack 25 minutes later, after radar determined where the mortar rounds were fired from. Soldiers counter-fired four 120 mm mortars in response. The wounded soldiers were being evacuated to a Multinational Force hospital. The names of the soldiers killed in action were being withheld pending the notification of next of kin.
Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, is located in the so-called Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of anti-coalition resistance. The city has been wracked by violence throughout Thursday. The attack came amid a series of clashes in the city that killed three people and injuring 20 others, said Dr. Abid Tawfiq Director of the Samarra General Hospital. Witness also reported seeing helicopters and tanks in the city. A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy in Samarra earlier Thursday wounded one U.S. soldier, O’Brien said. Iraqi insurgents have long launched mortar and rocket attacks on U.S. bases, most of which cause no significant damage or casualties. At times, when the shells land in populated areas, casualties can number in the dozens. Last month, a rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near the city of Balad, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 people including a pair of civilians, the military said. |