Two U.S. sailors died Saturday after a small boat they boarded off Basra, Iraq, exploded, a U.S. Navy spokeswoman said. The two were part of a seven-member boarding team. Four others were wounded. The explosion was the first of three at Iraq’s main oil terminal in the Persian Gulf. The blasts occurred shortly before 6:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. ET). Twenty minutes after the blast flipped the small boat and tossed the sailors into the water, security officers intercepted two other boats as they approached the terminal. Each exploded near moored ships, the Navy said. The coalition believes the boat attacks were coordinated
Earlier Saturday, a mortar attack killed at least 12 Iraqis in a crowded market in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood. It was the first of the day’s series of attacks that left at least 28 people dead, including five U.S. soldiers and the two sailors. Full Story