3 GIs Killed in Attack at Hospital

An assailant hurled a grenade from the upper floor of a children’s hospital here Saturday morning, killing three U.S. soldiers and severing the leg of a fourth, according to hospital workers and visitors.

The soldiers had been passing the time playing cards as they guarded the building.

In addition, one U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded Saturday afternoon when their convoy was attacked by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades near Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. officials said.

And this morning, one Marine was killed and another wounded near a bridge in a grenade attack, said a military spokeswoman, Army Spc. Nicole Thompson. She had few details, but the Marines were members of the 1st Expeditionary Force, which patrols the southern approaches to Baghdad.

The attacks, coming just days after U.S. forces killed Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusai during a raid in the northern city of Mosul, raised to 49 the number of U.S. troops slain by hostile fire since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1.

The Baqubah attack marked the second occasion since Bush’s speech in which three U.S. soldiers were killed in a single attack. The other deadly day was Thursday, when three 101st Airborne Division soldiers were killed by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades while on patrol in northern Iraq. In June, British forces lost six military police in a single firefight near Amarah, about four hours southeast of Baghdad.

“A lot of people have the sentiment that the war is over -- it’s not over,” said Pfc. Adam Gable of the 4th Infantry Division as he peered across concertina wire at a swelling crowd of Iraqis checking on relatives who had been in the Baqubah hospital at the time of the attack.

“When people die is the only time when the American media and the public pay attention,” he said, adding wistfully, “I could be planning my wedding now. A lot of the young Iraqi women, they remind me of my fiancee.”

Baqubah, a city an hour northeast of Baghdad, has been the site of several previous attacks on U.S. soldiers. Two weeks ago, assailants burned a Humvee outside the hospital, and last week they lobbed a grenade at soldiers there, but no one was hurt.

With the deaths of Uday and Qusai Hussein and the arrests Friday near Tikrit of up to 10 of their father’s bodyguards, U.S. officials hoped that the capture of Saddam Hussein might be imminent and guerrilla attacks would begin to wane. Some have predicted, however, that the deaths of Hussein’s sons could also lead to further retaliatory attacks.

At dusk Saturday, soldiers guarding the hospital stood nervously a little distance from the bales of wire they had unfurled to block the road.

The assault, in which three other 4th Infantry Division soldiers were also wounded, was especially bitter for soldiers because the U.S. military has ordered troops to provide protection after being criticized for failing to prevent the looting of hospitals, electrical substations and other civilian institutions in the days after the Hussein regime was toppled.

Now, with the continuing attacks, it appears that soldiers sitting guard may be especially vulnerable targets.

The attack also served as a bloody reminder that although some Iraqis are pleased by the American presence, it takes only a few who despise the Westerners on their land to create a lethal environment.

“They call us Ali Babas -- thieves. We’re not thieves, we’re here to protect them and make sure everything goes right,” said Higinio Nunez, a soldier from Fresno with the 4th Infantry Division who was guarding the hospital’s entrance.

The attacks, he said, could come from anyone. “We don’t know if it’s a girl, [or] a little kid.”

Several men in the neighborhood condemned the American presence. “Of course it is a revenge killing,” said Amer Ahmed Adai, who lives near the hospital and had come out in the early evening wearing a traditional long white robe.

“Now that Saddam Hussein is gone, they have brought freedom to Iraq. That is the operation they came to do, why are they staying now? This is the third month we are an occupied country.”

Several Iraqi women, on the other hand, defended the American presence.

“In my opinion these people are providing security for us,” said Oma Mohammed, 32, who works as a clerk in the hospital and was present when the attack occurred. “They are here to serve us, they are providing security for the hospital, we shouldn’t treat them like this.”

Hana Salin, 33, concurred. “It was an evil act by the attackers,” said the pregnant Salin, who was at the hospital for a pre-delivery checkup when the explosion occurred between 10:30 and 11 a.m.

At the time, the hospital was packed with patients as well as visitors. The nine-story building, one of the tallest in the city, has balconies outside many rooms -- an ideal perch from which to take aim. The soldiers were stationed just outside the building at the foot of an external stairway leading up to one of the lower floors.

Clerk Mohammed said she was in her ground-floor office when she heard the blast.

“Our office was very near the spot where it occurred,” she said. “One of those who was injured, his leg was just hanging by a piece of flesh.”

Within 10 minutes, the hospital was cordoned off by military vehicles and those inside were forbidden to leave before being questioned -- but at least a few people managed to leave the scene.

One hospital worker said the soldiers “were playing cards as usual, and the grenade was thrown in the middle.”

A cafeteria cook, Hussein Ali, 30, said he was turning shish kebabs on the grill when the blast occurred. He raced outside and saw the three slain soldiers and a fourth who was “terribly injured.”

The badly injured soldier was wearing just shorts when the incident occurred, Ali said. Usually U.S. soldiers wear their uniforms unless they are doing physical exercise such as running in a designated area on a base.

It was not possible to verify Ali’s description since U.S. military officials could not be reached for comment.

However, many Baqubah residents said that in the evenings the soldiers guarding the hospital stripped down to their shorts -- a practice that drew strong disapproval in the conservative community.

Several employees ran outside to bring the injured into the hospital where they were treated by Iraqi doctors until U.S. military ambulances arrived.

Each person inside was searched, questioned and fingerprinted.

Despite the thoroughness of the search, Americans received high marks for their treatment from many of the Iraqis there -- a notable event because there have been frequent complaints elsewhere that U.S. soldiers have treated Iraqis offensively during searches.

“They put the women in one room and the men in another, and they are checking the whole body, but nobody is humiliating us,” said Mundar Jaffa, 22, an assistant pharmacist.

The names of the slain soldiers in all the attacks were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

In the Abu Ghraib attack, U.S. military officials said that members of the 3rd Infantry Division were fired upon about 1 p.m. and that assailants may also have used an improvised explosive device on the highway. Three Iraqis also were wounded in the attack, the U.S. said.