European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 20, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday March 20 2007 stars and stripes pages v 7 More troops killed across Iraq 4 die in single Roadside bombing in Western Baghdad by Lauren prayer the associated press Baghdad the us Mili tary on sunday announced the deaths of seven More troops in Iraq including four killed by a Roadside bomb while patrolling Western Baghdad the latest american casualties in a monthlong Security crackdown in the Capi Tal after the explosion that killed four us soldiers on saturday the unit came under fire and an other Soldier was wounded Dur ing this months crackdown in the capital the battalion had found eight weapons caches and two Roadside bombs and helped res Cue a Kidnap victim the military said an explosion in Dyala prov Ince Northeast of Baghdad killed another Soldier saturday and injured five a us Marine also was killed saturday in fighting in Anbar according to a separate statement a seventh service member died saturday in a non combat related incident the Mili tary said though violence has receded slightly in the capital a car bomb killed eight iraqis on sunday in a predominantly shiite District police said the attack targeted peo ple cooking food at open air grills in the Street to offer As Charity on a shiite Muslim Holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Prophet muhammads death police said 28 others were wounded in the attack a us official meanwhile blamed Al Aida in Iraq for chlo Rine bomb attacks that struck Vil lagers in Anbar province last week but said tight iraqi Security measures prevented a higher number of casualties the attacks killed at least two people and sick ened 350 iraqi civilians and six us troops the us military said saturday us military spokesman rear a television in this image taken from television a us army vehicle bums in an Eastern suburb of Baghdad on sunday reportedly after having been attacked by insurgents there was no official comment on the attack by us officials adm Mark Fox said at least one of the attackers detonated his explosives after he was unable to get past an iraqi police Check Point in Amariyah just South of fal Lujah killing Only himself Fox conceded that Many iraqis were exposed to the chemical fumes but insisted that Steps taken by the iraqi Security forces were increasingly effective insurgent attempts to create High profile carnage Are being stopped at checkpoints across the country he said at a news Confer ence in Baghdad iraqi government spokesman Ali Aldabbagh appealed to iraqis to help Stop the violence there is a growing Power Strug Gle Between insurgents and Sun Nis who oppose them in Anbar the Center of the insurgency which stretches from Baghdad to the Borders with Syria saudi Ara Bia and Jordan the Anbar As saults came three Days after prime minister Nouri Almalik a shiite travelled there hoping to reach out to sunni clan chiefs and to undermine tribal support for the insurgency meanwhile the us military said american troops captured 12 suspected militants sunday in raids across Iraq All accused of plotting attacks on us troops Fox the us military spokes Man also said iraqi forces acting on a tip found a huge weapons Cache Friday on the outskirts of the Northern City of Mosul including 1800 pounds of bulk explosives he said the military was seeing glimmers of Good signs in the Security sweep that began in mid february to quell sectarian violence in Baghdad in Diw Aniyah 80 Miles South of Baghdad fighting erupted be tween us troops and elements of the shiite Mahdi army police said there were no reports of casualties and the us military had no immediate comment eleven bodies were found six in bad Cuba one in Diw Aniyah and four in Mosul Many with signs of torture and All apparently victims of sectarian killings in violence sunday gunmen opened fire on a minibus carrying civilians Northeast of Baghdad killing seven men and wounding four others police said the at tack occurred in Hibib just East of bad Cuba in the area where Al Aida in Iraq Leader Abu Musab Alz Aqrawi was killed in a us airstrike on june 7 a Roadside bomb also hit an iraqi police Convoy in Eastern Baghdad killing two policemen and wounding five authorities said Gates Gates writes to families of War dead the associated press Washington nearly every evening defense Secre tary Robert Gates takes up a sad task adding a few sentences to let ters to the families of us troops killed in Iraq i guess its because i feel a per Sonal responsibility for each one of these men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our coun try Gates said sunday on face the nation on lbs and its is a Small Ges Ture to the families that i person ally am involved and that i personally very much care and have great sorrow Over the sacrifice that their son or daughter or Hus band or wife has made he said his predecessor Donald h Rumsfeld began signing Condo Lence letters after he was criticized by democratic and Republican members of Congress in 2004 for using a signature machine Rumsfeld cited the interest of ensuring expeditious Contact with grieving family members in explaining Why he had not been personally signing the let ters Gates said his letters Are typed but i always add three or four lines in of Handwritten personal feelings at the end More than 3200 us troops have died in Iraq since the used coalition invaded in 2003 of those deaths More than 250 have occurred since Gates was sworn in on dec 18 us officials deny Taliban claims of shooting Down Helo by Joseph Giordono stars and stripes the us military is discount ing claims by the Taliban that they have shot Down a us Mili tary helicopter in Afghanistan according to a news release on sunday Taliban officials posted the claim on an extremist web site on saturday the Post ing claimed that a helicopter was shot Down in Nuristani prov Ince on Friday however no reports of a downed aircraft have been made by coalition forces and no troops Are missing us officials said sunday Over the weekend reports continued to detail a near Cata strophic attack on an australian military helicopter in Southern Afghanistan last week on March 12 a helicopter carrying australian troops and journalists was nearly struck by a rocket propelled grenade fired from the ground according to television news footage of the at tack the grenade missed the Heli copter by about 20 Yards the helicopter also was targeted by heavy machine gun fire from a Village helicopter Crew members apparently were unaware of the at tack at the time there was a Long series of bursts three four five rounds each he knew what he was doing he worked us Over John Hunter Farrell publisher of an australian defense Magazine was quoted As saying of the gun Ner on the ground i got out of the helicopter and said we were engaged by a heavy machine gun and they All made fun of me they thought i was being silly the helicopter was flying be tween Tarin Kowt and Kanda har at the time of the attack officials said a us army Chinook and an Apache attack helicopter also were part of the flight the officials said the last us military helicopter to go Down in Afghanistan crashed feb 18 in Southern Afghanistan in Zabul province in that incident eight Ameri can service members were killed and 14 were injured the crash was not believed to be caused by enemy fire email Joseph Giordono at 30 afghan police finish training stars and stripes the first group of 30 men Jias graduated from the new afghan National auxiliary police training program in Jalapa bad american military officials said sunday the anal program is de signed to take the place of Mili Tias and the training is run by a combination of american military personnel and civil Ian trainers from the defense contractor Dyn corp eventually officials said the program goal is for 1500 new policemen to be added to the current Force the training Center helps provide More people willing to sacrifice and work for the future of their government and country us air Force tech sgt Mcgowan Anderson an instructor was quoted As say ing one of the Progress Bench Marks Ofa government is How Many people you have work ing in unison to improve the country and this program in creases that number dramatically the new anal graduates will be working in the Field with american and afghan troops officials said