Insurgents Launch Coordinated Ambush on Iraqi Soldiers Amid Rising Violence Ahead of Elections

Strategic Insights -

In a bloody attack just two days after the deadliest strike against U.S. Marines in four months, insurgents ambushed an Iraqi army unit northeast of Baghdad, killing 19 soldiers and wounding four. The assault, which occurred on a patrol near Adhaim, 60 miles north of Baghdad, confirmed warnings from U.S. and Iraqi officials of a surge in insurgent attacks leading up to national elections on December 15.

Key Takeaways:

  • The ambush was a coordinated attack, involving a roadside bomb, rocket-propelled grenades, and machine-gun fire, which killed 19 Iraqi soldiers and wounded four others.
  • The attack occurred just two days after the deadliest strike against U.S. Marines in four months, which killed 10 service members in a bombing near Fallujah.
  • The U.S. command has released few details about the Thursday bombing that killed 10 members of the Marines' Regimental Combat Team 8.
  • The Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape showing an explosion targeting a U.S. foot patrol near Fallujah, which was claimed by the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of Iraq's best-known insurgent groups.
  • The United States hopes that a large Sunni turnout in the December 15 elections will produce a government that can win the trust of the minority Sunnis, the backbone of the insurgency.
  • A leading member of the British anti-war movement, Anas Altikriti, arrived in Iraq to try to win the release of four Christian peace activists taken hostage last week.
  • The kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostages if Iraqi prisoners are not released from American and Iraqi jails by December 8.
  • Germany is working to secure the release of an aid worker and her driver kidnapped in Iraq on November 25.

Statistics:

  • 19 Iraqi soldiers killed in the ambush
  • 4 Iraqi soldiers wounded in the ambush
  • 10 U.S. service members killed in a bombing near Fallujah on Thursday
  • 14 U.S. service members have died this month
  • 10 of the 14 deaths occurred in a single bombing
  • December 15: National elections in Iraq
  • December 8: Deadline set by kidnappers for release of hostages
  • 43: Age of German aid worker Susanne Osthoff kidnapped in Iraq on November 25

Sources:

  • The Associated Press - October 2006
  • Al-Jazeera television
  • British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC)
  • Christian Peacemaker Teams
  • The German government
  • The Associated Press (interview with Peggy Gish)