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WORLD> Middle East
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American kills 5 fellow soldiers at clinic in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-12 13:39 "It does speak to me about the need for us to redouble our efforts in terms of dealing with the stress," Mullen said. The US military is coping with a growing number of stress cases among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan — many of whom are on their third or fourth combat tours. Some studies suggest that about 15 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from some sort of emotional problems.
Adding to the stress, there have been several incidents recently when men dressed as Iraqi soldiers have opened fire on American troops, including an attack in the northern city of Mosul on May 2 when two soldiers and the gunman were killed. Rep. Harry Mitchell, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Camp Liberty shooting underscores the "critical need" to reach out to soldiers "suffering from the effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder." The death toll from the shooting at the counseling center 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. "Any time we lose one of our own, it affects us all," US spokesman Col. John Robinson said. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy." There have been several previous fragging incidents in the Iraq war. ? Last September, Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis was detained after allegedly killing two members of his unit south of Baghdad. The case remains under investigation. ? In April 2005, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death for killing two officers in Kuwait just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. ? In June 2005, an Army captain and lieutenant were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in the window of their room at the US base in Tikrit. National Guard Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez was acquitted in the blast. ? Spc. Chris Rolan, an Army medic, was sentenced to 33 years in prison in 2007 for killing a fellow soldier after a night of heavy drinking in Iraq. ? In 2008, Army Cpl. Timothy Ayers was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the fatal 2007 shooting of his platoon sergeant in Iraq. Also Monday, Iraq's main al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, denied Iraqi government claims that the military had captured its leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, according to the SITE intelligence group. Iraqi authorities said on April 23 that al-Baghdadi was in custody. The US military, which had questioned his existence in the past, did not confirm the capture. SITE said the group, in a posting on a Web site used by Islamic militants, said that al-Baghdadi was "fine" and that the man whose image was broadcast on Iraqi TV was unknown to them. "All that has been shown is not more than a play," the group said in the posting, the authenticity of which couldn't be verified. In other violence, the military announced Monday that a US soldier was killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra province of southern Baghdad. In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bombing killed two people Monday, including a 10-year-old boy, and wounded 10 others, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said. In Baghdad, a senior Iraqi traffic officer was assassinated on his way to work. It was the second attack on a high-ranking traffic police officer in the capital in as many days.
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