Iraq deaths underscore combat stress

By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Times-Dispatch
Published: May 12, 2009

BAGHDAD -- A U.S. Army sergeant shot and killed five fellow soldiers after an altercation at a counseling center on a military base yesterday, officials said.

The attack drew attention to the issue of combat stress and morale among soldiers serving multiple combat tours over six years of war.

Attacks on fellow soldiers were not uncommon during the Vietnam War but are believed to be rare in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A brief U.S. statement said the assailant was taken into custody after the shooting at Camp Liberty, a sprawling U.S. base on the western edge of Baghdad near the city's international airport.

A military statement said nobody else was hurt, but a senior defense official in Washington said three people were wounded. The names of the victims and shooter were not released.

President Barack Obama, who visited a base adjacent to Camp Liberty last month, discussed the shooting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The president said he would make sure "that we fully understand what led to this tragedy" and would do everything possible "to ensure that the men and women in uniform are protected as they serve our country so capably and courageously in harm's way."

Pentagon officials said the shooting happened at a stress clinic, where troops can go for help with the stresses of combat or personal issues.

A senior military official in Washington said the shooter was a patient at the clinic. He had been disarmed after an earlier incident there but returned with another weapon. It was not clear whether the victims were workers at the clinic or were there for counseling.

Soldiers routinely carry weapons on Camp Liberty and other bases, but they are supposed to be unloaded.

The U.S. military is coping with a growing number of stress cases among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan -- many of whom are on their third or fourth combat tours. Some studies suggest that about 15 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq suffer from some sort of emotional problems.

Yesterday's attack marks the sixth incident in which a service member was killed by a fellow service member since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.

According to the latest Pentagon figures, published in 2004, post-traumatic stress disorder afflicts about one in six veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Symptoms vary widely but include depression, anxiety, emotional detachment and aggression.

Separately, the military announced yesterday that a U.S. soldier was killed a day earlier when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Basra.

With violence declining, many soldiers face new challenges trying to shift from fighting a war to supporting the Iraqis -- tasks that often require skills in which they have not been trained.

Rep. Harry E. Mitchell, D-Ariz., a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the Camp Liberty shooting underscores the need to reach out to soldiers suffering from "the effects of combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder."

"Many troops are under great psychological strain and are not receiving the treatment they need," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and head of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America. "Much more must be done to address troops' psychological injuries before they reach a crisis point."

The death toll from the shootings at the counseling center was the highest for U.S. personnel in a single attack since April 10, when a suicide truck driver killed five American soldiers with a blast near a police headquarters in Mosul.