Posted at 2:23 a.m., Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Truck bomb kills 9 U.S. soldiers, wounds 20 more
Associated Press
The nine U.S. soldiers killed when a truck bomb exploded next to their patrol base in Iraq were all paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, N.C., the division said Tuesday. Twenty of their colleagues were wounded in the attack.Maj. Tom Earnhardt, a spokesman for the division at Fort Bragg, said it was the highest number of casualties for the division since the Iraq war began.
It was also the single deadliest attack on ground forces since Dec. 1, 2005, when a roadside bomb killed 10 Marines and wounded 11 on a foot patrol near Fallujah.
The soldiers were members of the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, Earnhardt said. A civilian interpreter was also wounded in Monday's explosion.
"Fifteen of the wounded were superficial and they were treated on the spot and returned to duty," Earnhardt said. "Five were evacuated to a military hospital, but none of the five have life-threatening injuries."
Earnhardt said the unit deployed in August to Iraq. It is one of three of the division's four brigade combat teams now in Iraq or Afghanistan.
