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Bomb kills four Stryker soldiers

May- 3-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Michael Gilbert provides a good summary of recent events in Mosul & Tal Afar.

Link to Full Article
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Two of the four soldiers killed in a roadside bomb blast Thursday in northwest Iraq were from Fort Lewis, officials said Monday.

The attack in Tal Afar was the second devastating hit on a Stryker in five days. On April 23, a suicide bomber drove a car full of explosives up to one of the 20-ton Army vehicles in Mosul, killing one soldier and seriously injuring six others.

The attack Thursday was the most lethal on a Stryker since the vehicles arrived in Iraq in December 2003. Insurgents have employed ever larger improvised bombs against the wheeled armored troop carriers, which in most cases have proven capable of withstanding the explosions to protect soldiers riding inside, Army officials have said.

The Defense Department on Monday identified the soldiers killed as Lt. William A. Edens, 29, of Columbia, Mo., and Sgt. Eric W. Morris, 31, of Sparks, Nev., both of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment. The battalion is part of the Fort Lewis-based 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

Also killed were two Fort Carson, Colo., soldiers: Spc. Ricky W. Rockholt, Jr., 28, of Winston, Ore., and Pfc. Robert W. Murray, Jr., 21, of Westfield, Ind. They were assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armor Cavalry Regiment.

Fort Carson soldiers arrived recently to augment the 1st Brigade soldiers in northwest Iraq, a brigade spokesman, Capt. Duane Limpert, said Monday. The 1st Brigade’s soldiers have been taking the new arrivals on missions to familiarize them with the area, he said.

Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack. Limpert said he had no information about their condition; they were evacuated to military hospitals elsewhere, he said.

The attack occurred about 5 p.m. Thursday in Tal Afar, about 45 miles west of Mosul, when a bomb buried in the roadway exploded as the Stryker went by, officials said. [...]

Limpert said brigade officials were comparing the two recent Stryker bombings to determine if the enemy has developed a new tactic for defeating the vehicles.

“We’re still evaluating that ourselves,” he said. “One of them obviously was a roadside bomb, the other a suicide car bomber, so there are different circumstances. There’s nothing that would lead us to think anything was different.”


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