15 Police Recruits Killed in Iraq; U.S. Death Toll for October Hits 83
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Monday, October 23, 2006
BAGHDAD, Oct. 22 -- At least 15 Iraqi police recruits were killed Sunday when two buses taking them to Baghdad were ambushed by insurgents north of the capital, a local police official said. Twenty-five recruits were injured in the attack, and 20 others were kidnapped, he said.
The U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of four soldiers and a Marine, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to 83 -- the highest monthly toll since 84 U.S. troops were killed in November 2005. Attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad have increased 43 percent since midsummer, U.S. military officials say.
Three of the soldiers were killed Sunday, two by small-arms fire west of Baghdad and one by a roadside bomb in the eastern part of the capital, the military said. The Marine was killed in Anbar province on Saturday, the same day that another soldier died, in Salahuddin province, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, at least 10 Iraqis were killed and dozens more injured in violence in Baghdad. A U.S. military official said recently that violence in the capital had risen 22 percent this month, prompting U.S. and Iraqi officials to revisit their security plan.
The attack on the Iraqi police recruits occurred about noon near al-Muradiyah, a town north of Baghdad and south of Baqubah in the restive province of Diyala, provincial Capt. Muhannad al-Bawi said.
The Reuters news service reported that the recruits were traveling to the capital from a training base that had been attacked Saturday in an incident that was not publicly reported. It quoted a Baqubah official as saying that "many" people were killed and 80 injured in that assault.
Separately, Alberto Fernandez, a senior U.S. diplomat, apologized for criticizing U.S. policy in Iraq in an interview broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera, the Associated Press reported.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," said Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
A Post staff member in Baqubah contributed to this report.
