Two Marines killed, 22 injured in western Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two U.S. Marines were killed and 22 wounded — two of them critically — in fighting in western Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday. It was the biggest number of American casualties reported from a single engagement in weeks.

A U.S. statement said the casualties were suffered Thursday as a result of "enemy action" in Anbar province, but gave no specific location or details of the fighting.

One Marine was killed "at the scene of the attack," the statement said. Another Marine died at a medical facility in Taqqadum, it added.

Eight of the wounded were flown to the main U.S. hospital in Balad. Two were listed in critical condition and six were reported as stable, the statement said. The others were taken to a U.S. clinic at Camp Fallujah, where four were hospitalized for observation.

U.S. casualties have begun to rise this month following a sharp drop in March, which saw the lowest number of American dead in Iraq since February 2004. Last month, 31 U.S. service members died in Iraq, but fatalities midway through April have passed 40. At least 2,371 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began, according to an Associated Press count.

Meanwhile, dozens of Iraqi police remained missing and nine were dead after insurgents ambushed their convoy Thursday evening as they left a U.S. base where they had picked up new vehicles, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

Brig. Gen. Abbas Maadal complained that the Americans refused to allow the police to spend the night at the base, just north of the capital. But U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said no such request had been made and that the Iraqis had not asked for U.S. troops to guard the convoy.

The attack, the deadliest against police here in months, began about 7:30 p.m. Thursday as a convoy of 109 police was traveling through a sparsely populated area near the Taji base heading back to Najaf, 100 miles to the south, Maadal said.

Police heard cries of "Allahu akbar," or God is great, and "long live jihad" broadcast by loudspeaker from a nearby mosque, Maadal said. Suddenly insurgents, including some women, opened fire and triggered a roadside bomb.

Maadal said 37 policemen returned to Najaf late Friday and about 20 more were en route. About 40 remained missing. At least nine policemen were killed and three of the 12 vehicles were heavily damaged, Johnson said. One insurgent was wounded and five were arrested, he added.

Although no U.S. troops were with the Iraqi convoy when it came under attack, Johnson said, American forces responded with helicopter gunships and ground troops.

"Once the attack occurred we did respond," he said. "We helped engage and brought this situation under control."

The overwhelming majority of police in Najaf are Shiites, and the area where the attack occurred is populated mostly by Sunnis.

Sectarian violence has worsened in Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. At least 11 people were killed Friday, including four who died in a pair of roadside bombings outside two Sunni mosques in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.

One civilian died when a suicide bomber targeted a British patrol south of Basra, wounding four Britons, police and British authorities said. Two brothers were gunned down in front of their elderly mother, who was wounded when assailants stormed into their home in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad, police said.

The others died in bombings and a shooting in Baghdad and Mosul, police said.

Delays in forming a new national unity government four months after Parliament elections have sharpened sectarian divisions.

Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shiite choice of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for another term has blocked progress toward a new government.

Leaders of the Shiite alliance, the dominant bloc in the legislature, said they would attend Monday's Parliament session, called to break the political logjam. Shiite politicians had earlier suggested they would boycott the session unless the dispute over al-Jaafari as well as other political posts that require parliamentary approval were resolved first.