WASHINGTON – Two more American soldiers were killed in Iraq yesterday by hostile gunfire as the commander of coalition forces announced he is establishing a militia of 6,800 Iraqis to help U.S. forces combat the attacks.
Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, said the “civil defense force” will consist of eight battalions of armed Iraqi militiamen, each with 850 men.
The militiamen will be trained by conventional U.S. forces and should be ready to begin operating in 45 days, he said.
This month’s establishment of a Governing Council of Iraqi political leaders was a good first step to getting the country back on its feet, Abizaid said.
“But in the short run it creates great anxiety among our enemies, and they’ll increase the level of resistance,” he said.
The two U.S. soldiers, members of the 101st Airborne Division, died when rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire struck their convoy near Tal Afar, a town west of the northern city of Mosul. Another soldier was injured.
Four soldiers have died in the last 48 hours, while 37 have been killed since May 1, when President Bush declared that major combat in Iraq was over.
A total of 151 U.S. troops have died in combat since the war began on March 20 – four more than during the 1991 Gulf War.
Also yesterday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two others injured when their vehicle crashed and flipped over near Baghdad International Airport.