Nine U.S. Troops Die, Falluja Command Still at Issue
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Nine U.S. soldiers were killed in a bloody 24 hours for U.S.-led forces in Iraq on Sunday, and Washington said it was still deciding which former general from Saddam Hussein's army to appoint to restore order in Falluja.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he expected the Security Council to authorize a multinational force for Iraq to take over after the planned U.S. handover of power to Iraqis on June 30.
In the worst attack on U.S. forces on Sunday, six soldiers were killed in a mortar bombardment on a base in western Iraq. But U.S. civilian Thomas Hamill escaped from being held hostage for three weeks by gunmen. Top U.S. general Richard Myers accused media of "very bad" reporting on Falluja, saying U.S. forces had not withdrawn and that General Jasim Mohamed Saleh, a commander in Saddam's feared Republican Guard, was unlikely to take charge in the Sunni city.
Sunday, May 2
Why Everyone Got Pissed At "Nightline"
Apparently, ABC broke the code of keeping the Iraq war sanitary. Funny how when you try to do a search on this story, the only ones reporting the nine dead troops are the foreign press. Guess General Myers got his wish: