WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. military said Friday that four of the five soldiers killed in Karabala, Iraq, were first abducted from a government building Jan. 20.
The fifth was killed at the Provincial Joint Coordination Center when it was attacked by "armed militants" wearing American-looking uniforms.
Three others were wounded.
"The attackers went straight to where Americans were located in the provincial government facility, by-passing the Iraqi police in the compound," said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, spokesman for Multi-National Division-Baghdad in a statement issued Friday. "We are looking at all the evidence to determine who or what was responsible for the breakdown in security at the compound and the perpetration of the assault."
At around 5 p.m. Jan. 20, militants driving a convoy of at least five sport utility vehicles were allowed to pass through Iraqi checkpoints to get to the PJCC where Americans were meeting with local officials.
Once inside the compound, between nine and 12 militants attacked the American troops with rifle fire and hand grenades.
One soldier was killed and three others wounded by a hand grenade thrown into the center's main office.
The attackers captured four U.S. soldiers and left the compound. They went to neighboring Babil province, passing through an Iraqi checkpoint. Iraqi police trailed the vehicle because they were suspicious.
They later found five abandoned vehicles in Mahawil, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area about 20 miles north of Hillah, present-day Babylon. Two of the U.S. soldiers were found dead of gunshot wounds, handcuffed together in the back of one of the SUVs. A third was found shot dead on the ground. A fourth was alive but severely wounded by a gunshot to the head; he died as Iraqi police were taking him to the hospital.
"The precision of the attack, the equipment used and the possible use of explosives to destroy the military vehicles in the compound suggests that the attack was well rehearsed prior to execution," Bleichwehl said.
