Iraq group claims attack that killed 14 Marines-Web

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iraqi insurgent group Army of Ansar
al-Sunna said on Thursday its fighters planted the bombs that
killed 14 U.S. Marines in western Iraq, according to an
Internet statement.

The Wednesday attack was the deadliest against American
forces since the start of the war on Iraq in 2003. Ansar
al-Sunna has also claimed last year’s suicide bombing inside a
U.S. military base in which at least 22 people were killed.

“Our heroes planted two high explosive devices on Wednesday
morning once they saw U.S. vehicles moving troops to besiege
the town of Haditha,” said the statement on an Internet site
often used by Iraqi insurgent groups.

“The mujahideen chose the biggest vehicle, the one carrying
the most troops, and detonated the devices, causing a massive
explosion … the vehicle was actually carrying 25 Marines and
they all died,” it added.

Ansar al-Sunna, and the Al Qaeda Organization in Iraq, have
featured prominently in the Iraqi insurgency, launching
frequent attacks and killing a number of hostages in Iraq,
sometimes by beheading.

Haditha is one of several violent towns in Iraq’s western
Anbar province, the heartland of Iraq’s insurgency which has
defied repeated U.S. offensives.