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Top-ranking officer killed in IraqCar bomb kills at least 15 in Basra commercial district
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Col. William Wood, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, died last week, the highest-ranking U.S. officer to be killed in combat in the Iraq war, the U.S. military said Monday. Wood, based at Forward Operating Base Falcon in Babil province, south of Baghdad, had responded to a roadside bomb Thursday. He was giving orders to his men as they secured the area when a secondary explosion blew him backward into a canal, killing him instantly, the military said. Wood, 44, was a regular Army officer assigned to the 1/184th, a National Guard outfit based in Modesto, California. He was from Panama City, Florida, and was stationed stateside at Fort Stewart, Georgia. A memorial service for him will be Tuesday in Iraq, the military said. At the time of his death, Wood wore the rank of lieutenant colonel. He had not been informed that he had been approved for promotion to colonel. "He believed in what we are doing out here, in the mission and in his men fully," said his friend Lt. Col. Ross Brown of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, also based at Forward Operating Base Falcon. (Luck runs out) It was not immediately clear if Wood's death had been previously reported by the military and included in CNN's count as one of the 2,026 U.S. military fatalities in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. (See video on deadly month -- 2:20) That count includes 93 who have died in October, the highest number of American deaths in a month since January, when 107 Americans were killed in Iraq. November 2004 saw the highest number of U.S. deaths in a single month -- 137. The most recently reported death was a U.S. soldier who was killed Monday by a homemade bomb while on foot patrol in Anbar province. Four other U.S. soldiers were killed Monday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad, and two more were killed by a bomb in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday. The four soldiers were patrolling the Yusufiya district southwest of the capital at the time of Monday's explosion. The two soldiers in northern Iraq were members of the 29th Brigade Combat Team on patrol north of Balad. Bombing wounds at least 50A car bomb killed at least 15 people and wounded 50 when it ripped through shops and restaurants Monday night in a crowded commercial district of Basra, Iraq's second largest city, police said. Police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi told The Associated Press that at least 20 people were killed. The bomb went off around 8:30 p.m. at a time when many people were in the shops and restaurants. Video from the scene showed glass and other debris strewn across the road. At least one building had its front sheered off. Police said many civilian cars were destroyed in the blast. The British military, which operates out of Basra, said Iraqi forces were responding to the scene and had not asked for assistance. No British troops or Iraqi special forces were injured, police said. Immediately after the bombing, hundreds of people gathered in the streets in a scene of chaos. Dozens of ambulances and emergency personnel tended to the wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Basra, a Shiite-dominated city in southern Iraq, has seen rising violence in recent months, but the attacks there have not been as widespread as in other parts of the country. Pentagon says civilians bear bruntA recent U.S. military report estimates that nearly 26,000 Iraqis were killed or wounded by insurgent attacks from January 1, 2004, through September 16, 2005. "Approximately 80 percent of all attacks are directed against coalition forces, but 80 percent of all casualties are suffered by Iraqis," the report said. The figure was extrapolated from a bar graph on page 23 of the report, which shows average daily casualties since January 2004. The number did not include civilians who may have been killed or wounded in coalition attacks, nor did it include insurgents. The 44-page report, "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq," was submitted to Congress on October 13, two days before Iraq's constitutional referendum. The report said 85 percent of insurgent attacks occurred in four provinces -- Anbar, Baghdad, Nineveh and Salaheddin -- where 42 percent of the population lives. "Insurgents have learned to avoid head-to-head engagements with coalition forces, using stand-off or hit-and-run attacks instead," the report said. "Improvised explosive devices are the primary insurgent method of attack." The Web site IraqBodyCount.net, which is operated by a group of volunteers that tracks media reports of civilian fatalities, estimates that between 26,732 and 30,098 Iraqi civilians have been killed since January 1, 2003. CNN's Cal Perry contributed to this report. Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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