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Two Marines killed, 22 wounded in Iraq

Meanwhile, 40 Iraqi police are missing after an ambush near a U.S. base on Thursday.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 15, 2006

BAGHDAD - Two U.S. Marines were killed and 22 wounded - two of them critically - in fighting in western Iraq, the U.S. military said today. It was the biggest number of American casualties reported from a single engagement in weeks.

A U.S. statement said the casualties were suffered Thursday as a result of "enemy action" in Anbar province but gave no specific location or details of the fighting.

One Marine was killed "at the scene of the attack," the statement said. Another Marine died at a medical facility in Taqqadum, it added.

Eight of the wounded were flown to the main U.S. hospital in Balad. Two were listed in critical condition and six were reported as stable, the statement said. The others were taken to a U.S. clinic at Camp Fallujah, where four were hospitalized for observation.

"Our hearts go out to the families of the dead and wounded Marines," said Lt. Col. Bryan Salas, a Marine spokesman. "Our wounded Marines are receiving the best care available, and we look forward to their speedy recovery."

U.S. casualties have begun to rise this month after a sharp drop in March, which saw the lowest number of American dead in Iraq since February 2004. Last month, 31 U.S. service members died in Iraq, but fatalities in April have already passed 40.

Meanwhile, dozens of Iraqi police remained missing and nine were dead after insurgents ambushed their convoy Thursday evening as they left a U.S. base where they had picked up new vehicles, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

Brig. Gen. Abbas Maadal complained that the Americans refused to allow the police to spend the night at the base, just north of the capital. But a U.S. spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said that no such request had been made and that the Iraqis had not asked for U.S. troops to guard the convoy.

The attack, the deadliest against police here in months, began about 7:30 p.m. Thursday as a convoy of 109 police was traveling through a sparsely populated area near the Taji base heading back to Najaf, 100 miles to the south, Maadal said.

Maadal said 37 police officers returned to Najaf late Friday and about 20 more were en route. About 40 remained unaccounted for. At least nine police officers were killed, Johnson said. One insurgent was wounded and five were arrested, he added.

Although no U.S. troops were with the Iraqi convoy when it came under attack, Johnson said American forces responded with helicopter gunships and ground troops.

BAGHDAD - Police and anticorruption authorities have broken up a vast smuggling ring, stopping more than 1,200 trucks full of crude oil illegally bound for Syria over the past three weeks, the Iraqi government said Friday.

The bust, the largest by Iraqi authorities, evolved over more than a month of investigation, surveillance and periodic arrests. It culminated this week with the arrest of Ahmed Omar al-Khatab, alleged to be the ringleader, in the northwestern border town of Rabiya.

Iraqi officials said they seized roughly 50,000 metric tons of oil - equivalent to 400,000 barrels, about a fifth of Iraq's average daily production - valued at nearly $28-million, according to Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi, an adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. U.S. forces were not involved in the sting, Ali said.

The governor of Iraq's Nineveh province, Duraid Kashmoula, confirmed details of the operation, as did Dawood al-Baghistani, the head of the Commission on Public Integrity in Nineveh. The commission, the government's anticorruption arm, led the investigation.

[Last modified April 15, 2006, 00:53:01]