Roadside Explosive Kills 2 U.S. Troops and 2 Iraqis

A roadside explosive Thursday killed two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis on foot patrol in this town that has become a vortex of anti-American violence.

A third U.S. soldier from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division was wounded in the attack. The assault brought to 545 the number of American troops killed since the start of combat in March, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The U.S. military said the dead Iraqis were a police officer and a translator.

After the bodies were taken away, and after U.S. soldiers had charged into nearby stores to round up suspects, the young men of Khaldiya gathered on the dusty roadside near the blast site.

And they celebrated.

“We have pledged ourselves to God the almighty that we will continue these attacks against the Americans until the last drop of our blood,” said Ahmed Abed, a rangy 32-year-old who wore a warmup jacket in the Iraqi national colors -- green, red, white and black -- and described himself as a middleweight boxer. “If they finish off our men, then the women will fight. If they finish off the women, then the children will fight.”

The youthful crowd showed no pity for the young men who had just been blown apart. A chorus of voices exulted in the gory details and denounced what they called abuses at the hands of U.S. troops.

“I saw the pieces of their bodies spread around,” said Kamal Hathal, a mechanic. “I saw a child holding a piece of flesh on a stick.... After such attacks, we hold our heads high in the air and feel proud. Why don’t the Americans go away? Once they have accomplished their target, gotten rid of Saddam, why are they staying?”

In Khaldiya, currents of Iraqi nationalism, fundamentalist Islam and nostalgia for former President Saddam Hussein converge in an almost palpable hatred.

The town, in the Sunni Muslim-dominated region west of Baghdad, lies along the road between the insurgent bastions of Fallouja and Ramadi. Bedraggled huts mix with the columned facades of mansions, signs of wealth accumulated through smuggling and other illicit activities during Hussein’s regime.

Khaldiya has been the scene of fierce attacks on U.S. troops and Iraq’s fledgling security forces. Last month, six U.S. soldiers died in two roadside explosions not far from Thursday’s blast. In December, a car bomb devastated the police station, killing at least 17 Iraqis.

Surviving officers blamed American forces for that attack, an allegation U.S. commanders called absurd -- but one that demonstrated the hostility in this region, even in the U.S.-backed police force.

Thursday’s explosion occurred at 10:30 a.m. Witnesses said they saw about a dozen soldiers, accompanied by several uniformed Iraqis, patrolling on foot on the main road east of a highway overpass at the entrance to town. As the patrol reached a long off-ramp leading to the bridge, a soldier poked at something with his foot, said Shihab Ahmed, who was at a shop on a ridge across the divided highway.

“I saw one of the soldiers was doing like this with his foot and something exploded,” said Ahmed, a weather-beaten 62-year-old in a tribal headdress and robe.

U.S. soldiers rushed to the scene, witnesses said. The troops descended on nearby stores, arresting a number of men, including a shopkeeper and a barber, the witnesses said.

Ahmed said he was handcuffed and held for more than three hours before an officer questioned him through an interpreter and released him.

“He was older than the others. He treated me in a very good way,” Ahmed said. “Very human.”

Still, Ahmed and his friends complained that, almost a year after the war, their town frequently went without electricity for hours at a time. They said the streets had become more dangerous.

“This is not freedom,” he said. “This is humiliation.”

The emotions were hotter across the road, where several dozen younger men gathered at an automotive service area. There was debate about whether the slain Iraqi officer should be considered a martyr or a necessary sacrifice in the attack carried out by “the brothers” of the insurgency.

“Our main motive for resisting the Americans is a religious one,” said Ali Mehdi, a truck driver. “And patriotic feelings. The people want to defend their honor and their country.... The Americans promised they would bring peace and security and democracy to this country. But they have brought nothing.”

In a separate attack, insurgents fired mortar rounds and rockets at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad early Thursday morning, slightly wounding a U.S. soldier. American troops returned fire, killing an Iraqi, officials said. They detained 55 people for questioning.