Officer deaths suspicious; criminal probe launched

TIKRIT, Iraq — The U.S. Army announced yesterday that it is launching a criminal investigation into the deaths of two soldiers in what initially was believed to be a mortar attack.

An examination by explosives experts determined the blast pattern was inconsistent with a mortar attack, and the incident is now being investigated by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, Central Command announced.

"The evidence is that this was not a combat attack or incident," said Col. Bill Buckner, spokesman for the Multi-National Corps in Iraq. "The evidence indicates that this was not indeed caused by a mortar attack."

The slain officers — Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, 30, and Lt. Louis E. Allen, 39 — had been living in a waterfront palace in Tikrit, on the grounds of a sprawling compound that Saddam Hussein had built along the Tigris River on the edge of his hometown. The U.S. Army has occupied the compound, Forward Operating Base Danger, since shortly after the war began in 2003.

Other soldiers living in other rooms of the palace reported hearing a series of four explosions around 10 p.m. Tuesday evening. They rushed to the men's aid, but both officers died of their injuries.

Buckner said no one — either American service members living on the base or foreign nationals who work there — has been detained in the case. He would not discuss other forms of indirect fire, such as grenades, which would be consistent with inflicting the kinds of injuries the two officers suffered or producing the kinds of blasts other soldiers reported hearing.

There has been at least one murder of U.S. personnel by a fellow soldier since the start of the conflict in Iraq. In April, an Army court-martial convicted Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a former member of the 101st Airborne Division, of killing two officers while they slept in their tent just days before the invasion.

Yesterday, the ground-floor window to the room where Esposito and Allen had been living was boarded up.

"We are evaluating all possible threats to our soldiers," Buckner said when asked whether soldiers should be concerned that whoever might have carried out the attack is still at large. "We are taking all measures to ensure the safety of our soldiers."

Esposito and Allen had been assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard. Esposito was the Headquarters Company commander. Allen was a company operations officer and had arrived in Iraq just a few days before his death.