An unexploded device discovered during investigation of the convoy attack (AP)
From AP:
Insurgents attacked a U.S. military convoy and a Humvee was burned Thursday near Fallujah, witnesses said, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American contract workers in the city. The top U.S. administrator in Iraq said the deaths would not go unpunished.
It was not clear if there were any casualties in Thursday’s assault. Associated Press Television News footage showed smoke pouring from the vehicle that had been abandoned on a roadside just outside the city. Witnesses said the Humvee was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
U.S. officials said they could not confirm the attack.
Also Thursday, two explosions near a U.S.-escorted fuel convoy in northern Baghdad wounded at least one Iraqi, witnesses said. APTN footage showed U.S. soldiers putting a wounded person on a stretcher inside an armored vehicle.
In Fallujah, police retrieved the remains of the four slain Americans on Wednesday night, wrapped them in blankets, and gave them to U.S. forces, said Iraqi police officer Lt. Salah Abdullah.
“We were shocked because our Islamic beliefs reject such behavior,” he said referring to the abuse of the bodies.
The top U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, on Thursday condemned the killings and said “their deaths would not go unpunished.”
“Yesterday’s events in Fallujah are dramatic examples of the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism,” he said at a graduation ceremony for police cadets. “The acts we have seen were despicable and inexcusable. … They violate the tenets of all religions, including Islam, as one of the foundations of civilized society.”