Bomb kills soldier in heavily armed vehicle

By LOLITA C. BALDOR - The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on a newly introduced heavily armored vehicle, military officials said Tuesday.

The death, however, has not changed the Pentagon’s plans to spend more than $22 billion to buy thousands of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, known by the acronym MRAP, for the Army and Marine Corps to use in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

“That attack has not ... caused anyone to question the vehicle’s lifesaving capacity,” Morrell said. “To the contrary, the attack reaffirms their survivability.”

The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. Morrell said it is still not clear whether he died as a result of the explosion or the rollover. Maj. Alayne P. Conway, deputy spokeswoman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said the attack and the death are under investigation.

Morrell said that the MRAP hit a “very large, deep-buried IED” and that the “force of the explosion blew the MRAP into the air and caused it to overturn.” Despite the size of the explosion, he said, the crew compartment “was not compromised” and the three soldiers inside escaped with cuts and broken bones in their feet.

“I think everybody is still amazed at the fact that, despite the size of this bomb, these vehicles are proving to be every bit as strong and as lifesaving as we hoped they would be,” said Morrell, adding that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is “more convinced than ever that these vehicles do indeed save lives.”

Some of the MRAP vehicles are made by Force Protection in Ladson.

The V-shaped hull of the huge MRAP truck is designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs, a weapon that has killed more American soldiers than any other tactic used by Sunni insurgents and militia fighters in Iraq.