BAGHDAD -- A roadside bomb killed seven US soldiers in northwest Baghdad, and two Marines were killed in western Iraq yesterday, the deadliest day for American forces since a suicide attack on a US base last month.
The bombing occurred as Iraq extended a state of emergency by 30 days to battle militants whose attacks have surged ahead of elections scheduled for Jan. 30. The prime minister warned that the number of assaults would only rise as voting day approaches.
The commander of US ground forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Thomas Metz, acknowledged yesterday that security is poor in four of 18 Iraqi provinces. But he said at a briefing in the capital that delaying the vote would only increase the danger.
"I can't guarantee that every person in Iraq that wants to vote goes to a polling booth and can do that safely," he said. "We're going to do everything possible to create that condition . . . but we are fighting an enemy who cares less who he kills, when he kills, and how he kills. A delay in the elections just gives the thugs and terrorists more time to continue their intimidation, their cruelty, their brutal murders of innocent people."
The soldiers with Task Force Baghdad were on patrol last night when their Bradley fighting vehicle hit the explosive, the military said in a statement. Everyone inside the Bradley was killed.
Newsday reported that the seven were members of New York's 69th Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit. Half of the Guard regiment's members are from Long Island, Newsday said, although the unit also includes soldiers from other states.
No other details were available last night about the attack. But insurgents in Iraq have frequently targeted US troops with crude explosives planted in roads and detonated remotely as patrols pass.
Amid the heightened threat of insurgent violence, senior Defense Department officials said yesterday that retired four-star General Gary E. Luck would be sent to Iraq next week to conduct an "open-ended" review of the military's entire Iraq policy, including troop levels, training programs for Iraqi security forces, and strategy for fighting the insurgency, The New York Times reported. The Times cited senior defense officials as saying that at a meeting yesterday with top military and civilian aides, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld instructed Luck, the highly regarded former head of US forces in South Korea and former adviser to General Tommy R. Franks during the Iraq campaign in 2003, to look at all areas of the operation, identify weaknesses, and report in a few weeks with a confidential assessment.
The two Marines killed in action yesterday were from the First Marine Expeditionary Force. They died in Anbar Province, home to the volatile city of Fallujah.
