A US soldier opened fire on fellow troops Monday, killing five before being taken into custody, the US command said. The shooting occurred at Camp Liberty, a sprawling US base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport and adjacent to another facility where President Barack Obama visited last month.
A brief US statement said the soldier ``suspected of being involved with the shooting' was in custody but gave no further details. It was unclear what provoked the attack. ``Anytime we lose one of our own, it affects us all,' US spokesman Colonel John Robinson said. ``Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy.'
Separately, the military announced Monday that a US soldier was also killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra province of southern Baghdad. The death toll from the Monday shooting was the highest for US personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters in Mosul.
Attacks on officers and sergeants, known as fraggings, were not uncommon during the Vietnam war as morale in the ranks sank. However, such attacks are believed to be rare in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for killing two officers in Kuwait just before the US-led invasion of Iraq of 2003.
Comments
Comments are closed.