9 Marines Die as Insurgents Mount Attacks

Eight marines were killed and nine others wounded west of the capital on Saturday when a suicide car bomb rammed into their convoy, military officials said, resulting in the deadliest day for the American forces in half a year. [The Marines later reported a ninth combat death on Saturday, The Associated Press reported, but did not say whether it was in the car bombing or another action. Efforts to contact the Marines for clarification were unsuccessful.] In the heart of Baghdad, insurgents staged their first major assault on a news media organization by detonating a car bomb outside the offices of a popular Arab news network, killing at least 7 people and wounding 19 others, police and hospital officials said. The marines were attacked near Abu Ghraib, the prison 15 miles west of Baghdad used by the Americans to hold detainees, said Capt. Bradley Gordon, a spokesman for the First Marine Division. The military said in a terse statement that those killed were conducting "increased security operations." Marines have been battling an increasingly lethal insurgency in the rebellious Anbar Province, which encompasses the parched lands of western Iraq; the provincial capital, Ramadi; and the insurgent stronghold Falluja. [more]