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Contractors shoot Stryker soldiers by mistake

Sep-24-2006 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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SEAN COCKERHAM; The News Tribune

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – Civilian security contractors wounded two Fort Lewis soldiers in a case of friendly fire Saturday, capping a violent day in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliyah. It happened in an area known among troops as RPG Alley, short for the rocket-propelled grenades favored by enemy fighters.

The soldiers were hurt while trying to stop an ambush on a supply convoy the contractors were guarding. The contractors “obviously didn’t know we were there. They saw shooting and returned fire,” said Capt. Matt Pike of Lacey, commander of Comanche Company of the 1st Battalion of the 23rd Infantry Regiment.

One of the C Company soldiers was shot in the leg. The other was hit in the face with shrapnel. Pike said the injuries are minor and both men were expected to be fit enough to return to duty today. The Army wasn’t releasing their names until their families could be contacted.

The soldiers are part of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the team of Strykers that returned to Iraq this summer from Fort Lewis. The brigade has battalions in Baghdad and Mosul, in the north.

Heavily armed private security contractors, many of them Americans or working for U.S. companies, are common in Iraq. Pike, after returning from the scene of Saturday’s firefight, said the identity of the contractors who fired on his troops was not immediately clear. He said there will be an investigation.[...]


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