Attackers ambushed a U.S. military patrol late Thursday, killing three American soldiers and wounding two on the outskirts of Saddam Hussein’s hometown. The assault near Tikrit came hours after insurgents ambushed two U.S. military convoys with remote-controlled bombs, opening a three-hour gunbattle in a volatile city 50 miles west of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said two soldiers were wounded in the Khaldiyah ambush, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised questions about the Bush administration’s handling of post-war Iraq.
Three soldiers from the Army’s 4th Infantry Division were killed when attackers opened fire with small arms in the village of Uja, just 5 miles south of the center of Tikrit, Lt. Col. William McDonald said.
Two soldiers wounded in the attack were evacuated to a medical treatment facility, McDonald said. The names of those killed were withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Earlier Thursday, insurgents ambushed two U.S. convoys with remote-controlled bombs and opened fire on one of them
in the city of Khaldiyah. The U.S. military said two soldiers were wounded in those attacks.
Soldiers are jumpy in the face of a guerrilla war in which it is extremely difficult to distinguish combatants from civilians.
Their unease showed itself in the Thursday ambushes and firefight as soldiers appeared to be firing on anything they felt threatened by, including an Associated Press reporter and photographer covering the incident.
Neither man was hurt.
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Compiled from RedEye news services and edited by Lara Weber (lweber@tribune.com) and Drew Sottardi (dsottardi@tribune.com)
