3 G.I.'s Killed in Iraq Capital, One at Campus

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/international/worldspecial/07IRAQ.html?hp

AGHDAD, Iraq, Monday, July 7 - Three American soldiers were killed in about
a 12-hour period Sunday and early today in Baghdad amid growing signs of
guerrilla resistance to American forces.
The first death occurred about 12:35 p.m. on Sunday when an American soldier
who was accompanying United States officials visiting Baghdad University was
fatally shot by an unidentified gunman, witnesses and American officials
said.
The next death occurred at 9:30 Sunday night when a soldier from the First
Armored Division was killed while chasing two Iraqi gunmen. One of the Iraqi
gunmen was killed and one was wounded, said a military spokesman, Specialist
Lorente Giovanni.
The third soldier was killed at 1 this morning while he was on patrol in a
Baghdad neighborhood when an explosive device struck his vehicle, Specialist
Giovanni said.
At the university, several students who said they had witnessed the
shooting, outside a cafeteria near the engineering school, said the gunman
had pulled out a pistol and fired a single shot at point-blank range into
the soldier's head. An American official said the soldier had apparently
just left the cafeteria after buying a drink.
The gunman fled, disappearing into the crowd of students, witnesses said.
The soldier, whose name was not released, was evacuated to a military
hospital, where he later died, military officials said.
The three deaths represent the 26th, 27th and 28th American soldiers to be
killed in hostile action since May 1, when President Bush said major
fighting had ended.
The shooting at the university came a day after seven Iraqi police recruits
were killed and more than 70 other people were wounded when an explosive
device attached to a utility pole near a police station in Ramadi was
detonated during the graduation of the first class of the new
American-trained Iraqi police force. There were several other reports of
hostile actions against American forces this weekend, and a British
journalist was shot and killed in Baghdad on Saturday.
The attack on Sunday afternoon raised questions about whether the movements
of American officials were being tracked by Iraqi insurgents. An American
official said over the weekend that some Chevy Suburban vehicles that ferry
Americans around the city under heavy security have been shot at in the last
month.
The shooting at the main campus of Baghdad University, in southern Baghdad,
came as officials with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the United
States-led civilian administration of postwar Iraq, were visiting officials
at the university. The university's library contains temporary offices of
the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education.
Military officials have described recent attacks as the isolated work of
desperate Iraqis connected to the toppled government of Saddam Hussein. On
Sunday, however, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B.
Myers, said officials were examining whether the attacks by remnants of Mr.
Hussein's Baath Party were becoming better organized. That "remains to be
seen," General Myers said on "Fox News Sunday."
"They certainly weren't at first," he said, "and we're still evaluating that
to see if there is any kind of coordination that goes beyond just local
coordination, that it might be broader than that."
Military officials in Baghdad said on Sunday that a seven-day effort to root
out Iraqi resistance and paramilitary activity in central Iraq had resulted
in the detention of 282 people and the seizure of weapons that included 217
rocket-propelled grenades and 96 AK-47 rifles.
Several university students who saw the shooting said the gunman did not
appear to be a student from the university. But they emphasized that the
university, which is spread out over several campuses in Baghdad, has more
than 60,000 students, making it impossible to know for sure whether he was
affiliated with it.
One witness, Thair Khudair, a 22-year-old civil engineering student, said
two American soldiers were standing next to the cafeteria when the gunman
pulled out a pistol and shot one of them.
"We just heard one shot," Mr. Khudair said. "I was sitting in the cafeteria,
and through the glass I saw it."
Although in other parts of Baghdad and central Iraq many Iraqis contend that
they have been mistreated by American forces, Mr. Khudair and several other
students said they were shocked by the attack on their campus.
"No student would shoot an American," Mr. Khudair said.
One allied official said on Sunday night that he did not know the gunman's
motivation, or whether the attack was linked to the visit by allied
officials to the campus.
American troops cordoned off the campus and searched students, according to
students who said they had been detained for up two and a half hours before
they were allowed to leave. "A friend of mine saw a man stand in front of
the Americans and take a nine-millimeter pistol and shoot him and run away,"
said Anwar Sabah, a 23-year-old engineering student. "I saw the guy lying on
the floor and blood coming from his head."
Witnesses said the soldier had been shot in the head at close range. One
week ago, the chief civilian administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III,
said recent attacks on American soldiers, including one in which a soldier
was shot in the head at a Baghdad market nine days ago, suggested "a clear
understanding of how body armor works."
The soldier was with the 352nd Civil Affairs Command in Baghdad, which is
attached to the Army's First Armored Division, said Maj. Sean Gibson of the
United States Marines, a spokesman for allied forces.
Major Gibson said an Iraqi was shot and killed by American soldiers with the
Third Armored Cavalry Regiment on Saturday night in Ramadi after the Iraqi
charged a military checkpoint in his vehicle.
According to The Associated Press, two Iraqis in a pickup truck also were
killed Saturday night in Baghdad as they charged troops and fired a
rocket-propelled grenade.