BAGHDAD, 30 May 2007 — Ten US soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and a helicopter crash on Memorial Day, the military reported yesterday, making May the deadliest month of the year for US troops in Iraq.
Eight of the soldiers were from Task Force Lightning. Six of them were killed when bombs exploded near their vehicles. Two others were in a helicopter crash. The military did not say if the helicopter was shot down or had mechanical problems.
The military said two Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers were killed the same day when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad.
The deaths were announced in three statements issued by the US military.
At least 112 US soldiers have died this month, according to an Associated Press count compiled from US military statements.
In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said five British nationals were kidnapped yesterday at the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad.
A senior official in the Iraqi Interior Ministry confirmed the five were British and that Mahdi Army militiamen were believed responsible. The official provided the information on condition that his name not be used.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the abduction was carried out by men wearing police uniforms who showed up at the Finance Ministry in 19 four-wheel drive vehicles of the type used by police. He said the band of kidnappers drove off toward Sadr City, the Shiite Mahdi Army stronghold in northeastern Baghdad.
In McLean, Virginia, a spokesman for the BearingPoint security firm, said one of the kidnap victims worked for the company. “We can confirm that there was a BearingPoint employee who was kidnapped in Iraq and we are working with the authorities to get more information,” said Steve Lunceford, the company spokesman. “I cannot identify the employee or his nationality. We’re not discussing that.”
“Officials from the British Embassy in Baghdad are in urgent contact with the Iraqi authorities to establish the facts and to try to secure a swift resolution,” a British Foreign Office spokesman said in London. Consular officials from the Foreign Office are in contact with the companies that employ the five and their families will be informed, the spokesman said.
Initial reports had said the kidnap victims were Germans working with the Finance Ministry computer systems. Earlier this year, militants kidnapped German citizens Hannelore Marianne Krause, and her adult son, Sinan, and threatened to kill them if Germany did not pull its troops out of Afghanistan. The fate of the two remains unknown.
