Sunday, June 29, 2003
This is the main online newspaper from India
Bodies of 2 U.S. Soldiers Are Found
TAJI, Iraq--The bodies of two U.S. soldiers who had disappeared while on guard duty three days earlier were found dead just west of here Saturday, ending an intensive search and with it, hope that they would be rescued.
The deaths were the latest reported in a dispiriting week as U.S. and British forces came under sporadic attack throughout Iraq. The violence, which left six Americans and six Britons dead, ranged from execution-style shootings at a crowded Baghdad street market to mob violence in southern Iraq.
The Army confirmed the identities of the two soldiers found Saturday as Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Philippe, 37, of Linden, N.J., and Pfc. Kevin C. Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio. They were assigned to the 18th Field Artillery Regiment of Fort Sill, Okla.
They disappeared Wednesday night while patrolling on regular guard duty at a captured munitions storage depot about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad. After they failed to respond to a routine radio call, the military launched a large air and ground search for the men.
Military officials would not comment on the condition of the bodies, the details of their discovery or any indication that the men had been held prisoner before their deaths.
After a series of house-to-house searches throughout the area where the soldiers were last seen, U.S. troops arrested four people at 3 p.m. on Friday and found the missing soldiers' Humvee half an hour later some 20 miles northwest of Mamamiyat. Their weapons were not found. Another eight Iraqis were detained for possible involvement in the incident.
The depot the men were guarding is in an area that had been a stronghold of fedayeen paramilitary forces loyal to ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
People in Taji, a village a mile or so north of the Tigris River set on a bucolic landscape of irrigated fields and palm trees, did little Saturday to indicate that their loyalties had changed.
Residents said the two bodies were found west of here, next to an area of ``storehouses.'' Some said the soldiers had been kidnapped near the Tigris River; others said they had been abducted near the warehouses where they were found.
``They intimidated us; they searched our houses. They aren't here to help us. They are occupiers,'' said one older man, who, like other villagers here, declined to be identified. ``They are trying to root themselves in Iraq.''
The area is made up, predominantly, of members of the Halabsa, a very conservative and traditional tribe. One man, about 30 years old, said: ``Nobody else is going to kick them out for us. We will do it. We will do operations every day.''
Asked where the bodies of the dead Americans could be found, he responded with an insult. ``Go look in the garbage dump!''
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TAJI, Iraq--The bodies of two U.S. soldiers who had disappeared while on guard duty three days earlier were found dead just west of here Saturday, ending an intensive search and with it, hope that they would be rescued.
The deaths were the latest reported in a dispiriting week as U.S. and British forces came under sporadic attack throughout Iraq. The violence, which left six Americans and six Britons dead, ranged from execution-style shootings at a crowded Baghdad street market to mob violence in southern Iraq.
The Army confirmed the identities of the two soldiers found Saturday as Sgt. 1st Class Gladimir Philippe, 37, of Linden, N.J., and Pfc. Kevin C. Ott, 27, of Columbus, Ohio. They were assigned to the 18th Field Artillery Regiment of Fort Sill, Okla.
They disappeared Wednesday night while patrolling on regular guard duty at a captured munitions storage depot about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad. After they failed to respond to a routine radio call, the military launched a large air and ground search for the men.
Military officials would not comment on the condition of the bodies, the details of their discovery or any indication that the men had been held prisoner before their deaths.
After a series of house-to-house searches throughout the area where the soldiers were last seen, U.S. troops arrested four people at 3 p.m. on Friday and found the missing soldiers' Humvee half an hour later some 20 miles northwest of Mamamiyat. Their weapons were not found. Another eight Iraqis were detained for possible involvement in the incident.
The depot the men were guarding is in an area that had been a stronghold of fedayeen paramilitary forces loyal to ousted leader Saddam Hussein.
People in Taji, a village a mile or so north of the Tigris River set on a bucolic landscape of irrigated fields and palm trees, did little Saturday to indicate that their loyalties had changed.
Residents said the two bodies were found west of here, next to an area of ``storehouses.'' Some said the soldiers had been kidnapped near the Tigris River; others said they had been abducted near the warehouses where they were found.
``They intimidated us; they searched our houses. They aren't here to help us. They are occupiers,'' said one older man, who, like other villagers here, declined to be identified. ``They are trying to root themselves in Iraq.''
The area is made up, predominantly, of members of the Halabsa, a very conservative and traditional tribe. One man, about 30 years old, said: ``Nobody else is going to kick them out for us. We will do it. We will do operations every day.''
Asked where the bodies of the dead Americans could be found, he responded with an insult. ``Go look in the garbage dump!''
