[Marinir] [CNN] Marines killed in Falluja attack

[Yap Hong Gie]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/06/24/iraq.main/index.html

Marines killed in Falluja attack
Some of casualties are women, U.S. official says
Friday, June 24, 2005; Posted: 1:24 p.m. EDT (17:24 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber in a vehicle killed two U.S.
Marines and left four troops unaccounted for when it exploded near their
convoy in Falluja, the volatile city west of Baghdad, a U.S. military 
official
said Friday.

Thursday night's blast wounded 13, the military said.
Some of the casualties were women, the official said. The troops were
assigned to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.
A Marine statement confirmed the deaths of two Marines and listed three
Marines and a sailor as "duty status whereabouts unknown."
Earlier reports said as many as six Marines were killed.
The attack came at the end of another particularly violent day in the Iraqi
capital. Four car bombings killed at least 17 people and wounded as many as
60 others in the city Thursday, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.
A suicide attack near an old mall in Baghdad's Karada area killed seven
civilians and wounded 10 others, the defense ministry said, while the Iraqi
police put the death toll at 12 civilians and three police officers, with 50
wounded.
Three police officers and seven civilians died in a second suicide blast
targeting an Iraqi police patrol near a gas station, the ministry said. Ten
civilians were wounded.
Car bombs also went off near two Shiite Muslim mosques -- Albu Jumaa
and Abdul Rasool Ali.
On Wednesday, five car bombings rocked Baghdad, including three nearly
simultaneous blasts that killed 18 people and wounded 46 others in a
predominantly Shiite neighborhood, police said. (Full story)

The Associated Press reports that there have been 480 car bombs in Iraq
since the handover of sovereignty on June 28, 2004. The AP count found
that at least 2,174 people have been killed and 5,520 have been wounded.

Bush: No timetable for troops
In the face of growing calls for a U.S. exit strategy in Iraq, President
Bush on Friday vowed there would be no timetable to withdraw American
troops.
"We are there to complete a mission, and it's an important mission," Bush
said at a White House news conference after meeting with Iraqi Prime
Minister Abraham al-Jaafari.
"A democratic Iraq is in the interests of the United States, and it's in the
interests of laying the foundation for peace." (Full story)
Al-Jaafari thanked the United States for its support and for sending sons
and daughters to liberate his country, adding, "This is not the time to fall
back."
He said, "We owe it to those who have made those sacrifices to continue
toward the goals they fought."
On Thursday, al-Jaafari visited the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in
Washington and thanked wounded U.S. troops.