Rescuers Ambushed At Crash

By JOHN WARD ANDERSON The Washington Post

Published: May 30, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military announced Tuesday that 10 American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Memorial Day, making May the deadliest month for U.S. troops in 2 1/2 years.

Also, gunmen dressed in police uniforms staged a well-coordinated kidnapping at Iraq's Finance Ministry and abducted five people whom the British Foreign Office identified as British citizens.

And two vehicle bombings in Baghdad left at least 44 people dead and 74 wounded.

Eight of the U.S. fatalities Monday occurred in the same incident: A helicopter crashed in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers, and insurgents then ambushed a rapid response team that was rushing to rescue them, killing six troops with a barrage of roadside bombs, said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman.

Garver said it was unclear whether the roadside bombs were there beforehand or were placed after the helicopter went down.

Two more soldiers were killed Monday by a roadside bomb in south Baghdad.

With 113 fatalities, May has become the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq this year.

Since the war began in March 2003, only two other months have recorded higher death tolls: November 2004 with 137 deaths and April 2004 with 135 fatalities.

Joe Gavaghan, a spokesman for GardaWorld, a Montreal-based security company, said four of the company's security guards and a client were abducted in the Finance Ministry raid. A spokesman for the U.S. consulting firm BearingPoint said the client was their employee and a British national.