Blue Star Chronicles

Two American soldiers were killed in Mosul, Iraq this week when ambushed by an Iraqi man dressed in the uniform of the Iraqi army.

American Soldiers - Mosul

Three Americans were injured in the attack. The gunman was killed. Hassan al-Dulaimi is reported to be both an Iraqi soldier and the Sunni Muslim imam of a mosque located at a nearby Iraqi army training center. A similar attacked took the lives of two American soldiers in November 2008. In February 2009, an American was shot and killed by an Iraqi policeman, and an Iraqi translator was also killed.

In April, eighteen U.S. Military died, the highest number of deaths since September 2008 when we lost twenty-five of America’s bravest. Nine Americans died in March, the lowest number of deaths since March 2003.

Major General David Perkins, a military spokesman, says the high-profile attacks are the work of al-Qaida in Iraq attempting to regain their influence in the region. The enemy, it seems, is taking advantage of the coming American military withdrawal from the area. The Iraq military wants control. The Coalition wants to give it to them, but at the same time, the soldiers who know how to secure the area is increasingly hampered by the new security agreement between the Coalition forces and Iraq.

Maj. Gen. Perkins says Iraqi leaders are preventing U.S. military from interrogating “the head of Iraq’s main al-Qaida front group.” Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, a Sunni insurgent, was captured last week. Perkins says the U.S. military needs to “confirm or deny” who he is,” but American forces are now shut-out of determining the value of a detainee. Now, we rely on the word of Iraqi leaders. Suddenly, the impact of withdrawal is meeting America head-on, and our troops are living under the threat of unidentified hostiles within the Iraqi military.

Even when working alongside Iraqi forces, U.S. troops are blamed for actions in the field:

Tensions also rose Friday in northern Iraq after American forces killed two men during a raid in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

The provincial governor’s office and tribal leaders said the raid violated the security agreement regulating U.S. forces’ conduct and demanded an apology.

The U.S. military, however, said it was an Iraqi-led joint operation and the two men killed were suspected of planting roadside bombs. The suspects were armed and resisted arrest, according to a statement, adding that U.S. troops shot the two men “for their own safety and the safety of their Iraqi partners.” Security was tightened in Tikrit after hundreds of angry mourners - some firing weapons into the air - took to the streets to protest the killings. The demonstrators shouted “Down with America!” and promised revenge.

On a brighter side, General Raymond Odierno, the commander of Multinational Force Iraq says that al-Qaida will not deter the people of Iraq from gaining their freedom from terrorism perpetrated by al-Qaida. Odierno praised the Iraqi government for their handling of a $300 million program to integrate the “Sons of Iraq” into civilian security, and plans to position 20 percent of the Sons of Iraq into “Iraq’s security ministeries and 80 percent into other government ministries.” It’s an extremely positive sign, he said.

The name of the recent murdered American soldiers have not been released. Mosul is considered to be the “last bastion of al-Qaeda in Iraq,” and American forces in the area face the risk of uniformed Iraqi forces turning hostile daily. The photos below are of America soldiers in and around Mosul. The middle photo is of trauma surgeon, Major John Pryor who was killed by flying mortar on Christmas Day 2008. On the left is Staff Sgt. Thomas Bruhn interacting with children in the community, and on the right you’ll see an impressive hand-to-hand combat demonstration by Americans. The video shows American soldiers distributing food to the people of Mosul.

American Soldiers - Mosul (Photos)