200 Jordan truck drivers killed in Iraq

[Barrett808]

Amman, Jordan, Jul. 28 (UPI) -- Some 600 Jordanian trucks have been robbed and 200 killed in Iraq by armed thieves or U.S. forces since the war began in March last year.

The president of the Jordanian syndicate of truck owners, Abdel Rahim al-Jamal, said Wednesday that land transportation services had sustained severe losses in human lives and vehicles as a result of armed robberies and U.S. fire inside Iraqi territory.

Al-Jamal asked the Jordanian government to take measures to curb the attacks on Jordanian trucks, which he said were taking place regularly.

He also held the U.S.-led forces in Iraq responsible for the destruction of a large part of the Jordanian truck fleet operating between Amman and Baghdad in bombardments that hit the trucks during the war.

(more)

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040728-051148-7213r.htm

[Barrett808]

1. In Iraq, growing number of foreign truckers refuse to brave dangerous road

In Iraq, growing number of foreign truckers refuse to brave dangerous roads
By Todd Pitman, Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) On his first journey to Iraq in eight months, Jordanian truck driver Faisal Suleyman was followed, pulled over and robbed by four men in a sky-blue taxi brandishing automatic weapons.

The trip will be his last, he said Tuesday, placing him among a growing number of foreign drivers whose cargo is vital to Iraq's reconstruction refusing to brave the gantlet of kidnappings, robberies and other violence plaguing the country.

''Nobody wants to come here, it's not safe,'' Suleyman told The Associated Press in the cab of his 16-wheeler Mercedes at a wind-swept truck-stop on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Hitting home that point, black-masked, armed militants calling themselves ''The Group of Death'' threatened in a video Tuesday to sever the main highway linking Iraq to Jordan in 72 hours and target Jordanians to stop supplies from reaching U.S. troops.

''We consider all Jordanian interests, companies and businessmen and citizens as much a target as the Americans,'' one militant said in the video obtained by Associated Press Television News.

(more)

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/209/world/In_Iraq_growing_number_of_fore:.shtml

[DenverDem]

2. "killed in Iraq by armed thieves or U.S. forces "

What's the substantive difference between the two?

[Mara Steele]

3. excellent catch. Thank you! n/t