Iraq toll 5 short of ‘04
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Two more U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq as the year wound down Friday, putting the American military death toll at 841 so far – just five short of 2004’s lost lives despite political progress and dogged efforts to quash the insurgency.
In Baghdad, hundreds of cars lined up at gas stations as word spread that Iraq’s largest oil refinery shut down two weeks ago because of threats of insurgent attacks. Nearly three years after the U.S.-led invasion, a fuel crisis again threatens to cripple a country with the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves.
The oil crisis has already cost one job, that of the oil minister, who was given a 30-day vacation last Wednesday and replaced with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi. Al-Uloum had opposed a recent decision to raise prices for fuel and cooking oil as much as ninefold.
Violence went on unabated Friday, with at least 17 people killed in shootings, mortar attacks and a suicide car bombing in Baghdad. In the most serious incident, police said nine people were killed in a drive-by shooting – apparently because they were drinking alcohol in public. Two Iraqi army captains were also gunned down in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
A senior Sudanese diplomat said his country closed its embassy in Baghdad in an effort to win the release of six kidnapped employees – including one diplomat.
Al-Qaida in Iraq had threatened Thursday to kill five Sudanese today unless the country removed its diplomatic mission from Iraq.
The two new deaths of U.S. military personnel were announced Friday by the American military. A bomb killed one soldier when it struck his vehicle in Baghdad on Friday, while the second soldier was shot and killed in the western city of Fallujah.
Their deaths brought the number of U.S. military members killed so far in 2005 to 841, of whom 64 died in December. A total of 846 troops died in 2004 and 485 in 2003.
In Beiji, some 155 miles north of Baghdad and near Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, the deteriorating security situation led authorities to shut down Iraq’s largest oil refinery Dec. 18, al-Uloum told the AP. Al-Uloum said the facility “is considered one of the vital refineries in Iraq” and produces about 2 million gallons of gas a day.