12 Americans Slain in Attacks as British, Iraqis Argue Over Clash

Iraqi insurgents killed nine Americans, military and civilian, in attacks across the northern and western areas of the country, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The military also announced that three soldiers died in roadside bombings Friday.

The deaths pushed to at least 1,905 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

A military police officer was killed Tuesday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb 75 miles north of Baghdad, the officials said. On Monday, a roadside bomb killed four Marines assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, in the town of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.

In the northern city of Mosul, three American security contractors and a U.S. diplomatic security agent were killed Monday morning by a suicide car bomber.

The names of most of the victims were not immediately made known publicly. However, the State Department released a statement identifying its slain employee as Assistant Regional Security Officer Stephen Eric Sullivan.

“Steve was a brave public servant, a brave American, dedicated to his country and to helping the people of Iraq and the people of America,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

Despite this week’s casualties, U.S. forces have experienced fewer deaths in September -- 23 so far -- than in recent months. In August, at least 85 U.S. troops lost their lives, including 14 killed along with a civilian interpreter when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle near Haditha in western Iraq. At least 55 died in July.

Military officials and experts warned against reading too much into the disparate figures, noting that the number of casualties rise and fall as both U.S.-led forces and insurgents adapt to each other’s tactics.

“The conflict in Iraq, like most insurgencies, has been a ‘learning contest,’ ” said Steven Metz, director of research at the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute in Pennsylvania. “The insurgents will discover some innovation, which from their standpoint works, and the coalition forces find a response.”

“From a strategic standpoint,” he added, “ebbs and flows are always part of a protracted conflict.”

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan described it as “a cycle of each one trying to get the better of the other,” with a varying number of American casualties depending on the types of military operations underway.

“Last month, we had quite a few operations across Iraq,” Boylan said. “These were more specific and intense operations. Whenever you have more offensive operations rather than just patrols and searches there are always the risk of more casualties.”

This month brought one of the deadliest days in Baghdad for Iraqi civilians since the beginning of the war. On Sept. 14, a wave of suicide car bombings and ambushes killed at least 141 Iraqis, mostly Shiite Muslims. The next day, a group of mostly Sunni Arab insurgents led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack and declared an “all-out war against [Shiite Muslims], wherever they are in Iraq.”

On Tuesday, Iraqi and British officials exchanged angry accusations over a clash in the southern city of Basra the day before between Iraqi police and British forces. The hours-long battle, in which British tanks smashed their way into an Iraqi jail, raised questions about relations between local Iraqi forces and the 8,500 British troops stationed in the region.

The clash came after two British soldiers dressed in civilian clothes were detained by Iraqi police. Later in the day, British troops and tanks stormed a jail where the men had been held, apparently out of concern for their safety at the hands of Shiite Muslim militiamen who are believed to control the local police. Soldiers rescued the pair from the custody of Shiite fighters in a home near the jail, Associated Press reported.

Iraqis took to the streets in response to the military moves, clashing with British forces and setting at least one tank on fire.

On Tuesday, Basra Gov. Mohammed Musabah Waily denounced the British operation as “barbarian.” Basra police commissioner Haider Abd Mihmidawi called the raid a violation of Iraqi sovereignty.

“There are many other ways to deal with the matter -- by calm negotiations and investigations,” Mihmidawi said. “They should have done this before [resorting] to the violence. I think this is an insult to the authorities here. It means they don’t respect the law.”

Local British commander Brig. John Lorimer released a statement defending the raid.

“From an early stage, I had good reason to believe that the lives of the two soldiers were at risk, and troops were sent to the area of Basra near the police station to help ensure their safety by providing a cordon. As shown on television, these troops were attacked with firebombs and rockets by a violent and determined crowd,” the statement said.

“It was a difficult day yesterday,” the statement continued, “but we have put this behind us and will move on.”

The Iraqi government launched an inquiry into the incident. A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari said there was no crisis between the two governments and urged “all sides to remain calm.”

In Britain, the rescue and the subsequent clashes were on most newspapers’ front pages, with photos of troops, their clothes ablaze, escaping from burning tanks and surrounded by an angry Iraqi mob.

The London Evening Standard editorialized: “Until this summer we had been led to suppose that Basra, the center of British operations in Iraq, was a relatively peaceful area -- at least in comparison with Baghdad. Now we know different.”

It said the problems had implications for the continued presence of coalition troops as Iraq prepared for a referendum next month on its new constitution and elections in December for a new National Assembly.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his American allies, the paper said, “were hoping that after the referendum, with Iraqi security forces trained and democracy established, coalition forces could begin an orderly withdrawal. This now looks optimistic. British forces may now have to go sooner rather than later, leaving behind a situation for the Iraqi government that is very far from ideal.”

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Times staff writers John Daniszewski and Janet Stobart in London and Saif Rasheed, Zainab Hussain and Shamil Aziz in Baghdad contributed to this report.