An explosion near a group of U.S.
soldiers north of the Iraqi capital Friday killed and wounded several
troops, the U.S. military said. Witnesses said they saw about a dozen
injured soldiers lying on the ground. Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a
spokesman for the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, confirmed "there
were soldiers killed and wounded" in an explosion, but he had no other
information. "We're trying to figure out what the details are," Kent
told The Associated Press. Witnesses said the attack took place around
midday in Tarmiyah, 20 miles northeast of Baghdad. Residents saw about
a dozen injured U.S. soldiers lying on blood-splattered ground after
the attack. "I was heading to our house ... there was a group of
American soldiers walking in the road while around five Humvees were
parking behind them," said Waleed Nahed, 35, who lives in the area. "I
heard a very loud explosion and I saw bodies flying." Nahed and Alaa
Nagy, 22, who works as a guard at a nearby factory, said helicopters
landed in the area 15 minutes after the explosion and took the injured
soldiers away. The road was immediately blocked off by the U.S.
military and Iraqi security forces.
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