Home for the holidays--another Bush Christmas

A 23-year-old soldier from Texas has been killed in Iraq. The Defense Department today announced Sergeant Michael C. Taylor of Hockley died Wednesday in Balad. D-O-D says an improvised explosive device went off near Taylor's truck during combat operations.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=4226423&nav=menu73_2_2


Sgt. Michael C. Taylor, 23, of Hockley, Texas, died in Balad, Iraq, on Dec. 7, when an improvised expolsive device detonated near his Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck while his unit was conducting combat operations. Taylor was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery, 214th Field Artillery Brigade, III Corps Artillery, Fort Sill, Okla.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/nr20051209-5223.html


Cpl. Joseph P. Bier, 22, of Centralia, Wash., died Dec. 7 from an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/nr20051209-5221.html

Four American soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the Baghdad area Saturday, the day kidnappers of four Christian peace activists set as a deadline for killing the hostages unless U.S. and Iraqi authorities released all prisoners.

The attacks occurred five days before crucial national elections, which U.S. authorities hope will help stem the insurgency.

Two of the soldiers were killed by small-arms fire southwest of the capital, the U.S. command said in a statement. The others died in a roadside bombing in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and by small arms fire north of the city, the command said.

No further details were released.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military said an American soldier was killed and 11 others wounded the day before in a suicide car bombing in the Abu Ghraib district of western Baghdad. At least 2,140 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=Ak8gs5AWh2WHbXvoSFWQ0eCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--