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Iraq bomb tests armored vehicle

The gunner atop the vehicle is killed in Iraq.

By Assocaited Press
Published January 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - A soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on a newly introduced heavily armored vehicle, military officials said Tuesday.

The death, however, has not changed the Pentagon's mind about its plans to spend more than $22-billion to buy thousands of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, called the MRAP, for the Army and Marine Corps to use in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

"That attack has not ... caused anyone to question the vehicle's lifesaving capacity," Morrell said. "To the contrary, the attack reaffirms their survivability."

The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP. Morrell said it is not clear whether he died as a result of the explosion or the rollover. Maj. Alayne P. Conway, deputy spokeswoman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said the incident is under investigation.

This is the first fatality since the new MRAP program was launched about a year ago. There now are more than 2,225 MRAPs in service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Pentagon is working to buy about 12,000 more at a cost between $500,000 and $1-million, depending on vehicle size and equipment.

School targeted: A suicide bomber pushing an electric heater atop a cart packed with hidden explosives attacked a high school north of Baghdad on Tuesday. A bystander was killed and 21 people were wounded. In another attack, a bomb exploded next to a girl's high school in Amiriyah, west of Baghdad, wounding a 7-year-old boy who was passing by.

Flag changed: Iraq's Parliament on Tuesday passed a law to change the Saddam Hussein-era flag, meeting the demands of Iraq's Kurdish minority. The measure, which expires in one year, approved the removal of the three stars and changing the calligraphy of the words "Allahu Akbar" in a symbolic break with the past.

Fast facts

Site lists pre-war U.S. claims

Students of the Iraq war can now browse a database of officials' statements before the invasion that link former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida or warn that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The Center for Public Integrity, a research group that focuses on ethics in government and public policy, designed the new Web site to allow simple searches for specific phrases, such as "mushroom cloud" or "yellowcake uranium." Warnings about the need to confront Iraq, by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice among others, can be reviewed alongside critiques published after the fact by official panels, historians, journalists and independent experts. The database is online at www.publicintegrity.org.

New York Times

[Last modified January 23, 2008, 02:17:08]