Families anxious for news from Iraq

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Brothers, wives and mothers in Virginia waited anxiously for news of their loved ones stationed in Mosul, Iraq, where a large explosion shredded their tented mess hall yesterday, leaving dead and injured in pools of blood.

Families probably will be notified today or tomorrow, tragically close to Christmas, about whether their relatives died or were injured in the horrific attack.

Soldiers from the Virginia National Guard Battalion were just sitting down for lunch with members of the Washington state-based Stryker Brigade, Iraqi national guard and U.S. civilian contractors when the blast struck.

Sgt. Christopher Suda, 30, with the 276th Engineer Battalion, Charlie Company, had just logged off the computer with his girlfriend in Virginia when the ground began shaking.

"She was talking to him at 4 a.m., (noon in Iraq), right before that happened," said Sgt. Suda's younger brother, Brian, speaking from his office in Fairfax.

He said he had heard that two persons from Sgt. Suda's division had been killed, adding that although he had not heard from his brother since the attack, he was hopeful.

"Ironically, one thing he always complained about were the mortars," Mr. Suda said of his brother, adding that the camp had been mortared often. The two keep in close touch, chatting over the computer about four times a week.

"When he came back in November, he was always saying they were always getting hit by mortar shells. Early this month, they got hit with a pretty good barrage. It was bound to happen eventually," Mr. Suda said.

President Bush yesterday expressed "sorrow and sadness" over the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Mosul, but urged family members not to lose sight of the importance of establishing democracy in Iraq.

"I just want them to know that the mission is a vital mission for peace," he said after visiting wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. "The idea of a democracy taking hold in what was a place of tyranny and hatred and destruction is such a hopeful moment in the history of the world."