A Soldiers Blog

Vehicle bombed in Baghdad
October 27, 2004

Baghdad - Witnesses claimed attackers detonated a roadside bomb today in the Iraqi capital, and news footage showed US forces at the blast site guarding a destroyed 4x4.

Associated Press Television News showed the vehicle flipped over and peppered with holes in Ghazaliya.

The US military had no immediate information on the attack.

In a separate incident, insurgents hit a US Bradley armoured vehicle with a bomb on Baghdad's airport road, damaging it, but causing no injuries, the military said.

The Ghazaliya blast came as about 800 British troops, accompanied by US marines, began making their way toward Baghdad today as part of a redeployment ahead of an expected coalition offensive against insurgent strongholds.


British Lieutenant Colonel James Cowan said British troops left the southern city of Basra to head for a base north of Hillah, about 95km south of Baghdad. Forty US marines were with them, he said.

APTN footage showed large flatbed trucks carrying British armoured vehicles up a road through Iraq's southern desert.

Nearly 800 Scottish soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Black Watch, are to replace US forces who are expected to take part in offensives against insurgent strongholds west and north of the capital to bring order to Iraq before elections in January.

The US military wants the British to assume security responsibility in areas close to Baghdad, so US forces can move to insurgency strongholds west of the capital. - Sapa-AP

Star - Vehicle bombed in Baghdad