Iraq firefight may have
hurt Schofield soldierA wounded soldier is reported
in critical condition in Germany
A Schofield Barracks soldier may have been wounded Friday following a fierce firefight northeast of Baghdad with the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
News reports indicate three solders believed to be members of the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team were wounded during the fire-hour firefight in Kufa along the Euphrates River.
Reports quoted Capt. Chris Budihas of the 25th Infantry Division (Light), 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, who said 130 soldiers of his unit were engaged in fighting up to 40 members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Maj. Debra Stewart, Army spokeswoman in Tikrit, would only acknowledge that one solder from Task Force Danger was wounded in the 1 p.m. firefight which involved 30 anti-coalition forces.
Schofield Barrack soldiers, members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, have been part of the Task Force Danger and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division since their arrival in Iraq in February.
She said the Army in Iraq does not identify a wounded soldier's specific unit.
She said that Sadr's forces attacked a patrol northeast of Baghdad on Friday afternoon with several RPGs. The U.S. forces killed two insurgents in the attack.
The wounded soldier was taken to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany where he was listed in critical condition.
News reports said one of the wounded soldiers suffered a head injury.
The battle reportedly took place along a two-mile stretch of palm trees on the opposite side of the river from Kufa, news accounts said.
On Friday, Stewart said Schofield Barracks soldiers belonging to the 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, responded to a tip from an Iraqi child and found a surface-to-air warhead near Riyadhd.
Another Iraqi citizen led the unit to another weapons cache where six 127 mm Brazilian-made rockets were recovered near Kirkuk.