A grenade lobbed from a window at U.S. troops guarding a children’s hospital here killed three of the Americans and wounded four more Saturday, yet another sign that the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons have not deterred attacks on U.S. forces.
Later in the day, another American soldier was killed in an assault on a military convoy.
Five soldiers were sitting and drinking sodas about 10 feet from the entrance to Diyala Children’s Hospital when the grenade exploded, said Hana Salam, who witnessed the attack.
“Suddenly, there was a big noise and a lot of smoke,” said Salam, an expectant mother who was waiting in line to get a pass into the hospital. “A soldier who had blood all over his clothes then hurried us into the hospital.”
The grenade was thrown from a nearby building, said Lt. Col. William MacDonald of the 4th Infantry Division. Three of the wounded soldiers were treated at the hospital, but a fourth had more serious wounds and was evacuated to a military hospital, he said.
In the second deadly assault about two hours later, an engineer unit attached to the 3rd Infantry Division came under small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire as it drove along a highway west of Baghdad near the Abu Ghraib prison. One soldier was killed and two were wounded.
The hospital attack marked the second time in three days that three U.S. soldiers were killed in one guerrilla assault. With the convoy death, the American military toll has grown to 48 since May 1, when President Bush declared that the major fighting had ended. In all, 162 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action since the beginning of the war.
The Bush administration had hoped that the deaths of Udai and Qusai Hussein during a firefight with U.S. forces in Mosul last week would reduce the constant guerrilla attacks.
However, the U.S. effort to rebuild Iraq and foster democracy has met stiff resistance from Iraqis who vehemently oppose the presence of American soldiers in their country more than three months after the Hussein regime was toppled.
Outside the hospital, angry Iraqis said they sympathized with those behind the attacks, saying the U.S. government has moved too slowly in restoring security and necessities such as electricity and water service.
“They should expect this because they are an occupation force,” said Kadhen Hussein, 40, a taxi driver in Baqouba, about 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. “This is our country, and we will rebuild it ourselves.”
Also Saturday, U.S. military officials announced that four American military police officers have been charged with abusing prisoners of war in Iraq.
The soldiers, all from a Pennsylvania-based Army Reserve unit, have been accused of kicking and punching prisoners at Camp Bucca, the biggest U.S.-run POW camp in Iraq.
The charges marked the first time U.S. soldiers were accused of abusing prisoners in Iraq.
In Baghdad, the commander of Iraq’s national police academy was wounded during a raid on a group of alleged carjackers. Ahmed Kadhim, 56, was shot in the leg as police were trying to arrest the suspects. Five other officers were wounded, one critically.
In Mosul, U.S. military bulldozers began tearing down the house where the two Hussein brothers were killed, along with two others thought to be a bodyguard and Qusai’s teenage son. The house belonged to a businessman with links to the Hussein family.
U.S. officials would not say whether he was the tipster who betrayed the brothers to claim $30 million in reward money.
