The Pentagon on Saturday released the names of three Marines killed by a suicide bomber Thursday in Karmah in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. The three, attached to the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Regimental Combat Team, were from the 2nd battalion, 3rd regiment, 3rd Marine Division based at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
The three were identified as Lt. Col. Max A. Galeai, 42, of Pago Pago, American Samoa; Capt. Philip J. Dykeman, 38, of Brockport, N.Y.; and Cpl. Marcus W. Preudhomme, 23, of North Miami Beach, Fla.
The bomber, dressed as a police officer, detonated his explosives at a meeting of U.S.-backed Sunni tribal sheiks, killing more than 20 people, including the Marines, two interpreters, and the mayor.
The deaths push to 995 the number of Marines killed in Iraq. The Marine Corps plans soon to turn security responsibility for Anbar province over to the Iraqi forces although a formal ceremony planned for this weekend has been scuttled due to bad weather.
Despite the Thursday attack, Marine officials insist the insurgency in Anbar, while not destroyed, has been marginalized.
''While they still can conduct the occasional bombing, and they desperately seek a high value media event, they essentially now pray on the helpless and engage in futile attacks against the Iraqi Security Forces,'' said Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in Iraq.
