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Task Force Olympia soldier killed

Jan- 6-2005 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

The following article is a summary of recent events in Mosul by reporter Michael Gilbert.

Link to Full Article
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

A Task Force Olympia soldier was killed and two were wounded Tuesday when Iraqi insurgents attacked their patrol with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. military said.

The attack occurred about 2 p.m. Iraq time in Tal Afar, 40 miles west of Mosul. The wounded soldiers were taken to an Army hospital at Mosul Airfield, according to a task force news release.

No other details about the attack were available Wednesday. The soldier’s name and unit were withheld until the soldier’s family can be notified.

Task Force Olympia commands military operations across northern Iraq and is made up mainly of troops from Fort Lewis, including the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

It also includes Army National Guard troops from Virginia and Maine and other active-duty, National Guard and Army Reserve units from across the country.

During the past week, soldiers from the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team, the 82nd Airborne Division and the 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division have arrived from other areas in Iraq and placed under Task Force Olympia command.

U.S. military officials said the additional troops are needed to enforce security leading up to the Iraqi parliamentary elections later this month.

Task force troops detained 17 suspected insurgents Tuesday and Wednesday, including six in a car who were thought to have set off a roadside bomb on a passing U.S. patrol.

Soldiers also patrolled a neighborhood in eastern Mosul on Wednesday where several children of middle-class parents have been kidnapped for ransom in recent weeks, according to task force news releases and an account by Newsday, which has a reporter and a photographer embedded with task force troops in Mosul.

Since November, the city has been the scene of sometimes heavy fighting and what U.S. military commanders say is an intimidation campaign by insurgents to disrupt the Jan. 30 elections.


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