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3 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq Grenade Attack
By MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq - A grenade attack killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded four Saturday while they guarded a children's hospital in Baqouba, a town northeast of Baghdad.
The deaths of the soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division brought
to 161 the number of troops killed in action in Iraq (news
- web
sites) since the start of the war, 14 more than in the 1991 Gulf War (news
- web
sites).
Further details on the grenade attack were not immediately available. It came
as Iraqis continued to debate the authenticity of video images of the bodies of
Odai and Qusai Hussein released Friday by U.S. authorities in their effort to
convince Iraqis the brothers were dead.
A number of explosions and bursts of gunfire were heard in the capital
throughout the day, but there were no reports of casualties among U.S. troops.
Guerrilla-style attacks on American forces have been averaging 12 a day,
according to the military.
There were also reports that shots were fired along the main highway leading
from the capital to the northern city of Mosul, where Odai and Qusai were killed
in a gunbattle with American troops Tuesday.
In Baghdad's al-Shoala neighborhood, the commander of Iraq's national police
academy, Brig. Ahmed Kadhim, was wounded while leading a raid on suspected
hijackers about 1 a.m., police told The Associated Press.
Kadhim's assistant, Capt. Mushtak Fadhil, said five other officers also were
wounded, one critically, when shots were fired as police confronted five
suspects. The suspected hijackers were arrested, he said.
Baghdadis have complained that kidnappings, car thefts and carjackings are
getting worse in the city, which is patrolled by Iraqi police, many carrying
sidearms. There are about 60 police stations.
Meanwhile, Iraqis questioned whether videotape of Saddam Hussein (news
- web
sites)'s elder sons � whose reconstructed faces were covered in morticians'
makeup � would convince people of their deaths.
The bodies were displayed to journalists Friday. While the Baghdad newspaper
Azzaman wrote about the corpses, it pointed out that few Iraqi journalists were
allowed to see the brothers.
The hunt for Saddam intensified Friday with the arrests of 13 men believed to
include some of his bodyguards in a raid near the former leader's hometown,
Tikrit.
"We continue to tighten the noose," said Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of
the 4th Infantry Division.
U.S. officials have expressed hope that the killings of Odai and Qusai would
weaken the anti-American resistance and lead coalition forces to Saddam himself.
Arab satellite media and CNN broadcast images of the brother's bodies
throughout Iraq and the Arab world after journalists viewed them Friday. The
corpses appeared markedly changed from the autopsy-style photographs released a
day earlier.
Thick beards � grown, officials said, during 3 1/2 months on the run � had
been shaved and trimmed, their faces rebuilt and a gash gone from the face of
the body identified as Odai.
The display appeared to be a calculated gamble by coalition authorities, who
may have produced more convincing evidence but also offended Muslims in Iraq and
elsewhere by altering the bodies and delaying burial.
"Showing dead and deformed bodies on TV is not acceptable," protested Amer
Ahmed al-Azawi, a 55-year-old Baghdad merchant. "But the Americans are criminals
and unbelievers. We got rid of one tyrant and we ended up with a bigger one."
Hamza Mansour, secretary-general of the Islamic Action Front in neighboring
Jordan, said the display violated Islamic custom.
"The bodies of Odai and Qusai should have been washed, shrouded and buried
immediately, but the Americans have no respect for our traditions and doctrine
and they acted in a very unethical manner," he said.
U.S. officials say Odai, 39, and Qusai, 37, died Tuesday in a firefight with
U.S. troops who raided a villa in Mosul, directed there by an Iraqi tipster. Two
other Iraqis in the house also were killed, apparently a bodyguard and Qusai's
teenage son, Mustafa.
Using dental and medical records and the serial and model number of a steel
plate in Odai's left leg, U.S. medical personnel said they were sure the men
were Saddam's sons.
Results of the DNA testing at a military lab in Washington could be completed
as soon as next week. A final report on the deaths is expected in about six
weeks, the medical personnel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The
Mulindwas Communication Group
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