BAGHDAD, 10 September 2003 — US forces suffered their first fatality in a week yesterday when a tanker filled with liquefied petroleum gas was hit by an explosion, Iraqi police said.
The death, coupled with an announcement by military authorities that another 14 soldiers had been wounded in the past 24 hours, shattered an unusual period of no US casualties in Iraq.
In a fresh sign of stress on the US military, the Army has ordered 20,000 Army National Guard and Reserve troops now in Iraq and nearby to serve there for a full year, defense officials in Washington said yesterday.
The move requiring 12-month tours in the area means many Guard and Reserve troops could have their original yearlong active duty mobilizations extended by up to six months when training is included, according to defense officials.
Iraqi police said the soldier was killed when his convoy drove between two underpasses on the main northern route out of Baghdad and the tanker he was driving was struck by the blast.
US soldiers at the scene, who closed off the road to traffic, declined to comment but Iraqi Sergeant Dhaser Farhan told AFP the blast went off just after 5:00 p.m. (1300 GMT). He said it occurred 15 km north of the capital on the road to Mosul.
A US military spokesman was not immediately available for comment and it remained unclear whether the explosion was caused by forces hostile to the US-led occupation of Iraq.
It was the first death reported since Sept. 2. Since the end of major combat operations on May 1, 67 US soldiers have died in attacks blamed on forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein and other extremists.
A further 79 have died in accidents or non-combat incidents.
The death of the US soldier followed two attacks in flashpoint zones west of Baghdad which took the number of wounded US soldiers to 14 over a 24-hour period, a senior coalition official said.
He said three soldiers were wounded in an “improvised explosive device” (IED) attack against their vehicle in Fallujah, 60 km west of Baghdad.
Another two were injured at Ramadi, 100 km west of the Iraqi capital, also in an IED attack. All five were evacuated to nearby medical facilities.
The strikes followed a series of attacks on Monday which ended a two-day spell when the military recorded no casualties.
The official said nine soldiers were injured in four attacks in Baghdad on Monday. This included two soldiers wounded in small arms fire.
Another attack involved a hand grenade which injured three from the 1st Armored Division. A further three soldiers, also from the 1st Armored, were wounded in another IED attack.
He said a soldier from the 4th Infantry Division was injured when his unit was hit in a tactical assembly area by mortar fire on Monday afternoon.
“I would not characterize the level of numbers or intensity of attacks as decreasing,” the senior coalition official said. “The number has remained relatively consistent.”
US forces have endured an average of 12 to 15 attacks a day in Iraq since May 1.
The coalition official added that coalition troops had conducted 32 raids and 1,421 patrols and detained 69 people over the same 24-hour period.
In southern Iraq, a tribal leader has been arrested on suspicion of sheltering ousted president Saddam Hussein, members of the tribe said yesterday.
Sabah Al-Maliki, who heads the Bani Malek, was taken from his home in the Qorna district, 80 km north of Basra, said Majed Al-Maliki.
About 100 Bani Maliki men demonstrated outside British forces’ headquarters in Basra yesterday demanding the chieftain be freed.
