It Begins | It Continues | three U.S. Marines were killed

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http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/06/29/three/index.html

June 29, 2004  |  BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A roadside bomb rocked a military convoy in southeast Baghdad on Tuesday, killing three U.S. Marines and wounding two others in the first fatal attack on American forces since they transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.

Footage from Associated Press Television News showed blood inside a slightly damaged Humvee and a flak vest laying in the road in the residential neighborhood. Iraqi national guardsman Sgt. Ali Muhsin said that three U.S. service members were killed and at least on wounded by the roadside bomb.

The U.S. military in Iraq later released a statement confirming that three U.S. Marines were killed and two were wounded. A U.S. soldier at the scene said the bomb hit the lead vehicle in the convoy and wounded or killed several American soldiers.

Meanwhile, Iraqi militants shot dead an American soldier they had held hostage for three months, saying the killing was because of U.S. policy in the Mideast nation, Al-Jazeera television said Tuesday.