Insurgents killed 19 Iraqi soldiers and wounded four others in a coordinated ambush northeast of Baghdad just two days after the deadliest attack against US Marines in four months.
The bloodshed confirmed US and Iraqi warnings of a surge in insurgent attacks ahead of national elections set for Dec. 15. So far this month, 14 US service members have died, 10 of them in a huge bombing on Thursday near Fallujah.
The Saturday attack occurred as an Iraqi army unit was on patrol near Adhaim, north of Baghdad. Survivors said insurgents triggered a roadside bomb, then showered the patrol with rocket-propelled grenades and machine gunfire.
Earlier this week, US President George W. Bush outlined his strategy for victory in Iraq, calling for Iraqi forces to eventually replace US troops in the fight against insurgents.
Elsewhere, the US base at the airport in Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, came under mortar or rocket fire on Saturday, wounding two US soldiers. The US command has released few details of the bombing which killed 10 members of the Marines' Regimental Combat Team 8, based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. A witness said it occurred at a mill in the village of Amiriyat al Fallujah, just outside the city. The bomb was fashioned out of four large artillery shells, US officials said.
Later on Saturday, Al-Jazeera broadcast a videotape from the Islamic Army of Iraq showing a huge explosion targeting a US foot patrol near Fallujah. The tape did not directly link the explosion to Thursday's attack, but the Al-Jazeera announcer noted the Marine deaths as the tape aired. The grainy video showed ground troops walking down a street on both sides of a Humvee when a huge fireball engulfed the scene, sending terrified Iraqis running.
In another video aired by Al-Jazeera, a group called Mujahedeen of Tal Afar claimed responsibility for destroying a US Bradley Fighting Vehicle in the northern city.
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