Iraq Notebook
Two GIs, Briton and six Iraqis killed

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BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two U.S. soldiers, a British soldier and at least six Iraqis were killed and more than two dozen others wounded yesterday in a series of bombings and a shooting in and near the capital.

An American soldier died after his patrol came under small-arms fire in eastern Baghdad in midafternoon, the military said. Another died in a bombing on the road to Baghdad's airport, the site of many previous attacks.

A British soldier was killed and two others were injured when a roadside bomb exploded south of Baghdad, the military announced.

200 Iraqis desert as fighting begins

BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least 200 Iraqi troops have left their posts in the American-led offensive on Fallujah, the U.S. military said yesterday, illustrating the predicament faced by men who are torn between orders from commanders and outrage from their countrymen.

The U.S. military and Iraqi commanders estimated that up to 200 Iraqi troops had resigned, with another 200 "on leave."

"Some people were afraid because they received threats," said Sgt. Abdul Raheem, an Iraqi soldier. "They were afraid of death."

Prominent Iraqi clerics, including influential Sunni Muslims and top aides to anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, condemned the Iraqi troops who were serving alongside Americans in Fallujah. The insurgent council that's controlled Fallujah for the past six months threatened to behead Iraqi troops who entered the city to "fight their own people."

Marine major testifies in death of prisoner

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine major implicated in the death of an Iraqi prisoner testified at his court-martial yesterday that he thought the prisoner was uncooperative and faking illness.
 
Maj. Clarke Paulus is accused of ordering a subordinate to drag Nagem Hatab, 52, by the neck from a holding cell at a Marine detention facility in Iraq on June 6, 2003. Hatab died shortly afterward; a military forensics examiner found he broke a bone in his neck and suffocated.

Paulus, of New Hope, Pa., testified that Hatab had to be moved from a cell he shared with other prisoners because he had diarrhea. When guards tried to get the Iraqi to stand, he fell into barbed wire. Paulus said he then ordered a lance corporal to drag Hatab by the neck.

"It was the only area that didn't have feces on it," Paulus testified.

Paulus said he watched as Hatab was dragged about 20 feet and saw no signs of choking. He said if he had, he would have stopped it. He said a medic determined Hatab's vital signs were normal.

Injured serviceman home with wife, quints

CHICAGO — A Marine badly wounded in Iraq just days before his wife gave birth to quintuplets has been reunited with his family, a military official said yesterday.

Marine reservist Sgt. Joshua Horton, 28, of Oswego, Ill., flew home from a military hospital in Maryland, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds suffered four days before his wife, Taunacy, gave birth Oct. 11.

His right leg in a cast and using a walker, Horton returned to his Oswego home Wednesday night, said Marine Maj. Rick Coates.

On Friday, he attended a funeral for one of the infants, a girl named Addyson, who died Oct. 30. "It was a very moving, heartfelt ceremony," Coates said.

Edward Hospital spokesman Brian Davis said the family has requested the hospital not release information on the condition of the surviving babies — two girls and two boys. The babies were born at 26 weeks, each weighing less than 2 pounds. The Hortons have two other children, 7 and 5.

The couple had decided after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that one of them should volunteer for duty, family members have said. Horton had previously been in the Marines, his wife was in the Navy.

Horton was already training when they found out his wife was pregnant with quints; she'd been taking fertility drugs.

Horton is on 30-day medical leave and can then decide if he needs more recovery time, wants to return to the military or apply for a medical discharge, Coates said.