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U.S. deaths in Iraq surpass 'end of major combat' total
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The number of U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the end of the major phase of the war now surpasses the toll in the first phase of the conflict. U.S. Central Command said a 3rd Corps Support Command soldier was killed Tuesday and two were wounded in an improvised explosive device attack on a military convoy near the town of Hamariyah. The town is between Fallujah and Ar Ramadi. The number of war dead after the major conflict was declared over May 1 by President George W. Bush is now at 139, surpassing the 138 U.S. service members to die during the first phase of warfare. Between March 20, when the war began, and May 1, 138 U.S. service members died, according to the U.S. military. Meanwhile, UK-based charity and relief organization Oxfam said Tuesday it has pulled its 10-member international staff from Iraq because of security concerns. Oxfam spokesman Brendan Cox said 50 Iraqi staff remain. The agency previously pulled staff from Nasarya for security reasons. International workers have been sent to Jordan. The decision follows last week's bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed at least 20 people, including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. On Monday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was reducing the number of non-Iraqi staffers working in Baghdad. (Full story) Raid on Iraqi townOvernight, hundreds of U.S. troops hunting criminals and terrorists have detained several people in a raid on an Iraqi town north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Soldiers from the U.S. 4th Infantry Division raided homes around Khalis Monday night looking for members of a gang accused of crimes in the area. U.S. forces -- backed by tanks, helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles -- were hoping to capture the gang's leader, Lateef Hamed al Kubaishat, but he appeared to have eluded capture, The Associated Press reported. The crime ring is accused of murder, gunrunning and a terrorist attack on a police station, AP said. Col. David Hogg, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade, told AP at least 24 members of the "terrorist organization" were captured. "Their primary focus is probably criminal activity, but they have attacked coalition forces through direct and indirect means," Hogg said. "As long as he (Lateef) is in place we will not be able to establish the conditions for the Iraqi police to establish law and order in the area." As U.S. soldiers combed scores of flat-roofed houses, Iraqi informants sat in the back of Humvees -- their eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses -- and helped soldiers identify members of Lateef's gang, AP reported. Residents of Khalis, 68 km (42 miles) north of Baghdad, were ordered to sit against walls as soldiers searched their homes for weapons and gang members. The U.S. military said Lateef's gang had claimed responsibility for a bomb that exploded outside the police headquarters in nearby Baqouba on August 10, killing one U.S. military policeman, AP reported. Lateef is also accused of selling weapons, burning down a courthouse to destroy criminal records and murdering a prostitute whom he accused of providing services to U.S. troops in the area, the news agency said. U.S. intelligence officers said Lateef was serving multiple life sentences for murder until Saddam Hussein granted amnesty to all prisoners in October 2002 as the United States was making its case for invading Iraq, AP reported. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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