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Bloodiest day for U.S. women

Marines killed in Falluja attack

• Cheney: Iraq to be success story

• Aziz attorney criticizes proceedings

• Iraq offers $10 million for ex-Saddam official

• U.S., EU rally Iraq support

SPECIAL REPORT

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• Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians

• Coalition Casualties

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A suicide bomb attack on a U.S. convoy in Falluja marked the bloodiest day for U.S. female troops serving in Iraq.

Insurgents bombed a truck carrying 19 U.S. military personnel Thursday night and then ambushed it, U.S. military sources said.

At least four Marines -- including three women -- were killed. Of the 13 Marines wounded, 11 were female, the sources said Friday.

A Marine and a sailor remain unaccounted for. Their genders were not disclosed.

The Marines were assigned to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force and were returning to Camp Falluja after having manned checkpoints in the nearby city.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a suicide bomber detonated explosives near the 7-ton truck.

They said the three female Marines were killed in the blast, and a male Marine was killed by small arms fire immediately afterward.

The attack marked the most female casualties for the U.S. military in one day in the Iraq war. Prior to Thursday's attack, 36 U.S. female soldiers and three civilian contractors had been killed in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.

Falluja was the target of a major offensive by Marines last fall aimed at rooting out the insurgency there.

In recent months, the city had been largely quiet, said CNN's Jane Arraf, embedded with a Marine unit.

Female Marines have been playing a more prominent role around Falluja, manning checkpoints and searching Iraqi women and children. (Read more)

They have become a necessity, out of respect for Iraqi cultural sensitivities.

Some women insurgents have hid weapons, cell phones, documents and other material under their clothing, and in some cases, Iraqi women have shot at Marines, said Arraf.

As a result, female soldiers and Marines have been increasingly used to aid those searches.

Thursday's attack comes at a time when Americans have been debating the role of women in combat zones. In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll last month, 54 percent said they opposed female combat troops, while 44 percent said they favored it.

Women comprise 8 percent of the U.S. military population serving in Iraq, where the front lines are less defined than previous wars.

Lt. Sharon Battiste, a Navy nurse in Qaim, in western Iraq, said she has only dealt with male casualties in Iraq so far -- and acknowledged it would be extremely difficult to deal with female casualties.

"From personal experience, I can tell you it's very devastating whenever we have an injured Marine, much less one Marine or Marines that die," Battiste said. "I believe that it does affect us all when we have death. And I think it would affect us even more if we have a female that dies from one of these ... acts."

She added, "I think it just would hit home a little harder."

Violence in the capital

Meanwhile, four car bombs went off in Baghdad Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding as many as 60 others, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.

A suicide attack near an old mall in Baghdad's Karada area killed seven civilians and wounded 10 others, the defense ministry said, while the Iraqi police put the death toll at 12 civilians and three police officers, with 50 wounded.

Three police officers and seven civilians died in a second suicide blast targeting an Iraqi police patrol near a gas station, the ministry said. Ten civilians were wounded.

Car bombs also went off near two Shiite Muslim mosques -- Albu Jumaa and Abdul Rasool Ali.

On Wednesday, five car bombings rocked Baghdad, including three nearly simultaneous blasts that killed 18 people and wounded 46 others in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood, police said. (Full story)

The Associated Press reports that there have been 480 car bombs in Iraq since the handover of sovereignty on June 28, 2004. The AP count found that at least 2,174 people have been killed and 5,520 have been wounded.

Al-Jaafari: 'This is not the time to fall back'

In the face of growing calls for a U.S. exit strategy in Iraq, President Bush on Friday vowed there would be no timetable to withdraw American troops.

"We are there to complete a mission, and it's an important mission," Bush said at a White House news conference after meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Abraham al-Jaafari.

"A democratic Iraq is in the interests of the United States, and it's in the interests of laying the foundation for peace." (Full story)

Al-Jaafari thanked the United States for its support and for sending sons and daughters to liberate his country, adding, "This is not the time to fall back."

He said, "We owe it to those who have made those sacrifices to continue toward the goals they fought."

On Thursday, al-Jaafari visited the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and thanked wounded U.S. troops.

CNN's Jane Arraf and Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.