> Three U.S. soldiers die in Iraq, toll nears 4,000
> Sun Mar 23, 2008 12:42am EDT
> By Mohammed Abbas
>
> BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed three U.S. soldiers in Iraq
on
> Saturday, pu****ng the U.S. death toll closer to the 4,000 mark at the
> start of the sixth year of the war for U.S. troops.
>
> The deaths, which brought the number of U.S. soldiers killed since the
> U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 3,996, came three days after President
George
> W. Bush said the United States was on track to victory in Iraq.
>
> In an upbeat speech marking the fifth anniversary of the war, Bush
> acknowledged the "high cost in lives and treasure" but said a U.S. troop
> build-up in Iraq had reduced violence there and opened the door to a
> strategic victory in the war on terror.
>
> The war is a major issue in the presidential campaign, with Democratic
> presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton calling for an
> early troop withdrawal timetable.
>
> Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain wants to keep troops in Iraq
> until it is more stable.
>
> The U.S. military said the three soldiers were killed when a roadside
bomb
> blew up near their vehicle northwest of Baghdad. Two Iraqi civilians
also
> died in the attack. It gave no further details about where the incident
> occurred.
>
> Roadside bombs are the biggest killers of soldiers in Iraq.
>
> On Friday, a U.S. soldier died from wounds sustained from "indirect
fire",
> a term commonly used by the military to refer to a mortar or rocket
> attack, south of Baghdad.
>
> Six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol group were killed early
> on Saturday in a U.S. helicopter strike on their checkpoint in
Salahuddin
> province, police and a local tribal leader said.
>
> The U.S. military said it had conducted a helicopter attack in the
> province, but denied it had attacked a checkpoint. It said the strike
> killed six men suspected of placing roadside bombs. Investigations were
> under way, the military said.
>
> SUNNI PATROL TENSIONS
>
> The U.S. military has credited the formation of what it calls Concerned
> Local Citizen groups (CLCs), also known as Awakening Councils, for
playing
> a crucial role in a 60 percent drop in violence across Iraq since last
> June.
>
> The mostly Sunni Arab neighborhood patrols have some 90,000 men in
western
> Anbar and provinces north and south of Baghdad. The U.S. military pays
> them $300 a month to patrol their neighborhoods and man checkpoints.
>
> Tribal leader Abu Faruq said Saturday's air strike took place on a CLC
> checkpoint near the town of Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.
>
> "They knew all this area under is my control, and all the men were in
> uniform and were not firing their weapons, so why did this happen? If
> Awakening checkpoints are hit this way, it is a disaster," he said.
>
> The incident is the latest in a string of disputes between the CLCs and
> the U.S. military. In November, U.S. warplanes attacked a CLC checkpoint
> north of Baghdad, killing 25 men.
>
> In February, CLCs in Jurf al-Sukr, south of Baghdad, said U.S. forces
> killed three of their number, and in the same month, neighborhood
patrols
> in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, tem****arily stopped working to
> demand more pay and the removal of a local police chief.
>
> The southern Baghdad districts of Shurta and Hay al-Amil and the
southern
> city of Kut were re****ted to be quiet on Saturday after Mehdi Army
> fighters loyal to ****'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed with Iraqi and
> U.S. forces a day earlier.
>
> Sadr imposed a unilateral ceasefire on his unruly militia last August
and
> extended it last month, a move U.S. commanders say has helped to reduce
> violence in Iraq.
>
> But the gunbattles in Baghdad and Kut have raised fears that it may be
> unravelling at a time when the U.S. military is in the process of
> withdrawing 20,000 troops.
>
> Mehdi Army fighters have complained that the truce ties their hands and
> opens them to attack by rival ****'ite factions and U.S. forces. U.S.
> commanders say they only target Mehdi Army units that have ignored
Sadr's
> ceasefire order.
>
>
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