Despite Americans killed and mutilated, work for future marches on
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies): Iraqi rebel forces besieged an American convoy just a few kilometers outside the city of Fallujah, the setting for yesterday's attacks that resulted in the deaths of 9 US citizens, 4 of whom were civilians.
Yesterday, March 31, was the most tragic day for American troops since Jan. 8 when 8 soldiers died after a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down outside Fallujah by Sunni rocket launchers.
Images of yesterday's ambush of two vehicles trasporting 4 American contractors were aired on Qatar and United Arab Emirates television. The footage horrified and shocked viewers as their vehicles were shown destroyed and set aflame by grenades.
Also seen in the images were Iraqi citizens who came upon the scene in joyous celebration after the 4 burnt bodies were removed from the vehicles and dragged along the road, kicked and mutilated. Two of the bodies were hung from a bridge above the Euphrates River.
A few hours later, just outside Fallujah, 4 US soldiers lost their lives while their M-113 exploded in the air, after the plane was struck by a guided missile.
In the afternoon in Ramadi (about 20 km north of Fallujah) an American military officer died and another wounded after a small explosive device was thrown at them.
Fallujah, a city 35 km northwest of Baghdad, had been the stage for intense conflict during the war when American troops and Hussein's Republican Guard clashed in bloody battles for days on end.
In reaction to what happened the US State Department said the Coalition's pre-established plans for Iraq would not change. Furthermore it reiterated that the scheduled date (June 30) for turning over power to the new Iraqi government would not be altered.
As such violent incidents continue to erupt all over Iraq (especially in the so-called "Sunni triangle" formed by the cities of Fallujah, Tikrit and Kirkuk) a UN team of experts has met with the country's new leaders to decide on ways in which power will be turned over to the Iraqi people.
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