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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Eight U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq Attacks Eight U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq Attacks By Joshua Partlow BAGHDAD, March 11 -- Eight U.S. soldiers died in separate attacks here and in the eastern province of Diyala on Monday, the deadliest day for U.S. troops in more than two months. U.S. officials announced overnight that three U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded when an improvised bomb exploded near their patrol in Diyala. An interpreter was also killed. No other details were provided. In Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed five U.S. troops as they mingled casually with Iraqis in a shopping district. The soldiers had parked their Humvees and stepped out into the warm sun and swirl of people on the main thoroughfare of what was once Baghdad's most elegant neighborhood. The customers strolling past the open businesses in Mansour -- the Babit gift shop, the Al Jadurchi computer compound -- created the pleasantly mundane scene that American soldiers have tried so hard to cultivate in a capital battered by war. About 3 p.m. Monday, that vision dissolved again into violence. A man wearing a vest laden with explosives blew himself up amid the U.S. patrol, killing five soldiers and wounding three others in the deadliest day for Americans in Baghdad in six months. The bombing, which blasted out the windows of the four-story buildings around the al-Rawad intersection of Mansour street, also injured an Iraqi interpreter and four Iraqi civilians, according to U.S. military officials. An official in the Interior Ministry said two Iraqi bystanders were also killed. "I guess it will never end," said one U.S. soldier in Baghdad, as news spread through the ranks about the deaths. "Such evil." The bombing, which U.S. soldiers attributed to the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, was the deadliest single attack on U.S. troops in Iraq since Jan. 28, when five soldiers were killed in a bomb and gunfire ambush in the northern city of Mosul. But there has not been such a deadly day in Baghdad for U.S. troops since Sept. 10, when eight soldiers were killed. The number of American fatalities in Iraq has declined over the past five months to some of the lowest levels of the war. But the single greatest killer of U.S. troops in Iraq remains the makeshift bombs, placed by the roadside or carried by people, that are used to target soldiers on foot and in their vehicles. Before Monday's attack, of the 165 U.S. troops killed since Nov. 1, 91 were victims of "improvised explosive devices," a number that includes suicide-vest attacks, according to Pentagon data compiled by The Washington Post. The next deadliest tactic was gunfire, which killed 24 soldiers. Since early 2006, the percentage of Americans killed by IEDs has ranged between 40 and 60 percent, after reaching a high of 80 percent of all combat deaths in September 2005. A senior U.S. military official said there had been a recent spike in attacks by people using suicide vests. The tactic is often associated with insurgent fighters who come from outside Iraq to fight, but this appears to be changing. "Usually if you wear a suicide vest you're a foreigner," the official said. "More and more Iraqis are wearing them." The attack Monday was a dispiriting blow for U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, whose commanders have expressed cautious optimism as the level of violence has fallen since the middle of last year. The gradual improvement in the city "brought us back from the brink of insanity," said Lt. Col. Steven Stover, a military spokesman responsible for Baghdad. "I think things are tenuous," Stover said. "Violence is down . . . but it doesn't make every casualty any easier." Overall, the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq is nearing 4,000. In the hours after the bombing, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers cordoned off the neighborhood. Broken glass littered the intersection as Iraqi firefighters hosed down the bloody street. An Iraqi soldier on guard at the scene said that the American soldiers were standing outside their vehicles for longer than usual -- he estimated an hour -- and that this gave the suicide bomber enough time to attack their exposed position. "They were all together, and that's why this suicide bomber could kill five soldiers," said Majid Adil, an Iraqi army sergeant. The U.S. military official in Baghdad said he did not know how long the soldiers were out of their vehicles. But he said their presence on the street has raised questions about the purpose of their mission. "Everyone is pretty mystified what that many guys were doing dismounted in that area," the official said. People who live and work in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood said they had grown accustomed to feeling almost safe there in recent months. "But every time there's quiet and calm, we expect something will happen, and today it did," said Janan Raouf Dawoud, 59, who owns a supermarket near the site of the explosion. About three hours after the Baghdad explosion, a car bomb blew up outside the largest hotel in Sulaymaniyah, a relatively peaceful Kurdish city in northern Iraq. The blast at the Sulaymaniyah Palace Hotel killed one person, wounded 29 and shattered windows, according to police and hospital officials. Two other suicide bombings occurred Monday in Diyala province, north of Baghdad. A woman detonated the explosives she was carrying inside the house of Thair Ghadhban al-Karkhi, the leader of one of the U.S.-backed armed groups that have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The bombing in the Kanaan region, east of the provincial capital of Baqubah, killed Karkhi and his 5-year-old niece, and injured three others, one of them critically, said Ali Hussein al-Karkhi, a cousin and aide to the slain leader. Another suicide bombing took place near an Iraqi police patrol in the town of Muqdadiyah, killing two people and injuring 20, according to 1st Lt. Alaa al-Dulaimy, spokesman for the Diyala police. Washington Post staff writer Howard Schneider, special correspondents Zaid Sabah in Baghdad and Dlovan Brwari in Irbil, and staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.
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#1. To: robin (#0)
Five dispensable pawns, placed strategically by the military-political complex to give the illusion of safety to the media and the American public. Expect lots more of the same given their 'success.'
They died for Jr.'s sins, and I don't mean that to be funny.
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