STORM2K

BAGHDAD, Iraq (May 8) - Two American soldiers were killed Thursday in separate attacks in Baghdad - one a bold daylight shooting at close range and the other a sniper attack, military officials said.

In addition, at least one soldier was injured when a U.S. vehicle hit an explosive in part of the capital believed to have been cleared of land mines.

The incidents demonstrate Iraq is still fraught with danger for U.S. forces a month after Saddam Hussein's government fell.

In the most brazen attack, an unidentified Iraqi walked up to a soldier on a bridge and opened fire with a pistol at close range, according to senior U.S. Army officers in Baghdad who had heard reports of the shooting.

Oh no! Too Sad!!

There's going to be more of this ... so sad to lose our soldiers.

Yeah, the war is not over, yet!

Oh, no I have a nephew in Baghdad.....very sad news. Kris told us people continue to shoot at them, even though the war is over. Suddenly this past week his wife received 4 letters, all in one day, we received 2 over a few days and his in-law's received several letters. We hadn't heard anything in 3 weeks and then we got all the letters. It made us all feel closer to him. And now this. Praying big time.....will say prayers for these soldiers too, no matter if we know them or not. Very sad.

my friend Shaun is in Baghdad...I hope it's not him! That's horrible news that the shootings happened. I guess some people don't want to let the Saddam government out of their minds...they don't like the idea of change.

It could be disenfranchised Ba'ath Party members, "Islamic statist" Shi'ites, or just some animals who are looking for a "kill" to validate themselves in some vague notion of "jihad"...Iraq will be a target range for some time ahead.

This is most unfortunate. I hope this stops soon.

One of the two soldiers shot and killed was from Hamilton, OH, just north of Cincinnati:

Tri-state Soldier Killed In Baghdad

Reported by: 9News/AP
Web produced by: Stacy Puzo
Photographed by: 9News
5/9/03 2:54:53 PM

http://www.wcpo.com/specials/2003/iraq/ ... l/111.html

An Army infantryman from Hamilton was killed by a sniper Thursday in Iraq while directing traffic at a bridge in Baghdad, said his wife, who had expected him home within weeks.

Devonna Rockhold said her husband, Pfc. Marlin Rockhold, 23, was shot in the back of the head. Rockhold was with the 3rd Infantry based at Fort Stewart, Ga.

Mrs. Rockhold said the Army notified her of his death Thursday night.

"He was on a bridge in Baghdad directing traffic. He got killed by an enemy sniper attack," Devonna Rockhold, 28, said in a telephone interview Friday from her home.

She was awaiting word from the Army about whether the sniper had been captured.

Rockhold was one of two soldiers killed in separate shootings Thursday in Baghdad, the Army said.

Rockhold was a 1998 graduate of Hamilton High School. He and his wife, also from Hamilton, were married March 2, 2002, two days before he joined the Army. Marlin Rockhold was the stepfather of her 8-year-old child, she said.

He left Fort Stewart for Kuwait on Jan. 20. His wife said she didn't know when he had moved into Iraq.

"He called me Sunday, and I received a letter the day before yesterday," she said.

The couple had only five minutes for the phone call, Mrs. Rockhold told The JournalNews of Hamilton in a separate interview Friday.

"We talked about how much we missed each other and how much we loved each other," she said. "He was expecting to come home at the end of the month, right before my birthday."

His grandmother, Eileen Henderson of Hamilton, said she had received a letter from Rockhold on Thursday, just the second from him since he left.

"It sounded like he was prepared to do what he had to do," Henderson said Friday. "He said, 'You don't want to fight a war, but sometimes you do what you have to do.'

"Marlin was very quiet-spoken," Henderson said. "He had said for a while that he wanted to join the Army so that he could do something to help the country."




So very young......so sad. Prayers go out to his family.

I lived in Hamilton, OH for 10 years.

My prayers and thoughts go out to these brave young men's families.