Sunday, June 07, 2009 ACAPULCO: A military official says 15 gunmen and a soldier were killed in a two-hour shootout in the heart of Acapulco's hotel zone. The army colonel who led the battle against the gunmen says the shootout erupted when the military received a tip about the presence of armed men at a house in the hotel zone. He says the gunmen opened fire with assault rifles and about 50grenades on soldiers who arrived at the house. The soldiers found four Guerrero state police officers inside the house who said they were being held captive by the gunmen. The colonel led reporters through the scene early Sunday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of security reasons. The gunbattle started Saturday night and went on past midnight.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments