Suicide Boats Attack Iraqi Oil Installations in Gulf

Three boats launched an apparently coordinated suicide strike Saturday on Iraqi oil installations in the Persian Gulf, killing three American troops and capping a violent day in which five U.S. soldiers were killed when rockets hit their base near Baghdad. More than two dozen Iraqi civilians died in other attacks. Three other U.S. troops were wounded when their craft approached one of the attacking boats and the vessel exploded, flipping the coalition craft and throwing the crew into the water, a statement from the U.S. 5th Fleet said. The attack on Iraq’s two main terminals in the gulf, several miles offshore, is believed to represent the first such maritime strike during the insurgency that began shortly after U.S. troops invaded Iraq last spring and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. The country’s oil pipelines frequently have been targets of sabotage. Full Story