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Iraq battles rage
- fiercest fighting
since war's end
U.S.troops, allies clash
with insurgents in 5 cities
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 9:27 a.m. ET April 07, 2004BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the fiercest and
most
extensive fighting in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major
combat
in Iraq in May, U.S. and allied troops battled insurgents in at least five
Iraqi cities on Wednesday.
Scores of Iraqis and at least one U.S. solders were reported killed in the
latest round of combat, which also saw a U.S. helicopter crash land and
burst
into flames near the town of Baqouba, where Shiite militiamen and American
troops were fighting, according to the military and a witness. There was
no
immediate word on casualties.
The heaviest fighting appeared to be occurring in Fallujah, where U.S.
Marines
were fighting their way into the city block by block, firing on insurgents
and
pounding houses with tank shells and rockets in a drive to pacify one of
Iraq's most dangerous cities.
The Americans also called out a weapon rarely used against the Iraqi
guerrillas: the AC-130 gunship, a warplane that circles over a target,
laying
down a devastating barrage of heavy machine gun fire. At least 60 Iraqis
killed
and more than 120 wounded in overnight fighting in Fallujah, hospital
officials
said.
Widespread fighting reported
The action wasn't limited to Fallujah, however. In other fast-moving
developments Wednesday:
Polish troops killed the head of militant Iraqi Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's
office in Kerbala during clashes in the holy Shiite city, Iraqi police
said.
Police spokesman Rahman Mashawi told Reuters that Murtada al-Mussawi, who
ran
Sadr's Kerbala office, was killed in fighting with Polish troops in the
center of town. Sadr's militias have been battling occupying forces across
south and central Iraq since Sunday.
One U.S. soldier was killed and one wounded during an engagement with
insurgents near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, a U.S. military
spokeswoman said in Baghdad. The killing of the 1rst Infantry Division
soldier
occurred as U.S. troops responded to a guerrilla attack, she said.
The U.S. Army said an OH-58 scout helicopter was hit by small arms fire
near
Baqouba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad, but landed safely with no
reports of
casualties. But an AP photographer reported that the aircraft burst into
flame
shortly after .what he described as a crash landing. The incident occurred
as
U.S. troops engaged Shiite militiamen in the area.
Eight Iraqis were killed in the town of Hawija, about 30 miles southwest
of
Kirkuk, when clashes broke out between U.S. troops and demonstrators
voicing
support for Sunni resistance to the U.S.-led occupation, police said.
Another
10 people were reported wounded.
Ukrainian troops pulled out of the southern Iraqi town of Kut and
regrouped at
their base after coming under fierce attack on Tuesday and earlier in the
week,
Ukraine's Defense Ministry said. A statement said the withdrawal was made
"on the request of U.S. representatives in the civil administration and
with
the objective to save soldiers' lives." On Tuesday, one Ukrainian soldier
was killed in an explosion and five other servicemen were injured in
clashes in
Kut.
General vows to 'destroy' cleric's militia
At least some of the fighting appeared to be in response to calls by
al-Sadr, a
radical Shiite cleric, for a widespread uprising against U.S. forces.
A top U.S. general in Iraq vowed on Wednesday to "destroy" al-Sadr and his
followers, blamed for a wave of attacks against coalition forces in
southern
cities. "We will attack to destroy the al-Mahdi Army," Brig. Gen. Mark
Kimmitt
told reporters. "Those attacks will be deliberate, precise and they will
be
successful."
He said U.S. forces were operating to hunt down members of the militia in
the
mainly Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad, and he called on
al-Sadr to
surrender.
"If he wants to calm the situation ... he can turn himself in to a local
Iraqi
police station and he can face justice," Kimmitt said.
U.S. authorities announced an arrest warrant for al-Sadr, whose al-Mahdi
Army
militia battled U.S. and other coalition troops since Sunday in a half
dozen
cities, including Baghdad and mainly Shiite cities of the south, killing
eight
U.S. soldiers and two coalition soldiers.
Kimmitt said al-Sadr -- along with Sunni guerrillas who have opposed U.S.
forces for months -- are waging violence to disrupt the June 30 handover
of
power from the Americans to an Iraqi government.
"All the Iraqi people that are watching this understand this. It all comes
down
to extremism versus moderation," Kimmitt said. "The extremists want to ..
take
this country back to an authoritarian regime or even worse .. some sort of
Talibanization of this country."
Battle in Sunni heartland
Meanwhile, U.S. Marines and gunmen were engaged in heavy battles in the
Dubat
neighborhood on the eastern side of the besieged city of Fallujah and in
other
parts in the center, witnesses said. U.S. warplanes opened fire on groups
of
Iraqis in the street.
Rocket-propelled grenade fire set a U.S. Humvee ablaze, injuring soldiers
inside, witnesses said.
Among the 60 dead were 26 people - including 16 children and up to eight
women - killed when warplanes struck four houses late Tuesday, said Hatem
Samir, head of the clinic at Fallujah Hospital. Others were killed in
street
battles before dawn and into the day Wednesday.
Messages from mosque loudspeakers called for "jihad," or holy war. Some
gunmen in the street were seen carrying mortars, and some women carried
automatic weapons.
Also on Wednesday, a U.S. Marine commander in Baghdad confirmed the combat
deaths of 12 Marines battling Suni insurgents in the western city of
Ramadi.
Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which
controls
Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, said the 12 were killed in
two
battles in the city that raged for three hours Tuesday.
He said one of the fights spread along a front stretching for a mile. He
declined to speculate on how many insurgents were killed but said "the
enemy
paid a price ... we have the bodies."
Mattis also said troops captured an unspecified number of combatants from
Syria.
It was one of the costliest battles for U.S. forces in Iraq since the war
that
toppled Saddam Hussein began a year ago, and brought to around 30 the
number of
U.S. soldiers killed in action since Sunday. The White House said the
losses
would not weaken its determination.
"Our resolve is firm, our resolve is unshakeable and we will prevail,"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
'Operation Vigilant Resolve'
U.S. Marines in Fallujah and Ramadi launched "Operation Vigilant Resolve"
this week to hunt down those involved in the killing of the four U.S.
guards.
After they were killed, a crowd of Iraqis set the bodies ablaze, mutilated
them
and hanged two of them from a bridge.
Elsewhere in Iraq, followers of al-Sadr fought gun battles with foreign
troops
in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Amara and Kut on Tuesday and vowed to
pursue a revolt that has claimed over 130 lives in three days.
The uprising by Shiites raised fears in Washington that U.S. forces,
already
battling a Sunni insurgency, faced a Vietnam-style quagmire.
The clashes with Shiites are a new front for U.S.-led forces trying to
pacify
Iraq ahead of a June 30 hand-over of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.
Sadr appealed to all Iraqis, whatever their religion, to help expel the
occupiers. "This insurrection shows that the Iraqi people are not
satisfied
with the occupation and they will not accept oppression," he said in a
statement.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, in London for talks with British
Prime
Minister Tony Blair, said thousands more foreign troops might be needed to
maintain order.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said if commanders on the ground
asked
for more troops they would be sent.
President Bush vowed the campaign by Sadr's supporters would not derail
Washington's plans. "We will pass sovereignty on June 30," he told a
campaign rally in Arkansas. "We're not going to be intimidated by thugs
and
assassins."
A U.S. opinion poll showed support for Bush's handling of Iraq at a new
low
of 40 percent, with 44 percent wanting U.S. troops withdrawn.
U.S. Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, a key backer of John Kerry's bid
to
unseat Bush in November's presidential election, said Iraq had become
"George Bush's Vietnam" -- a comparison rejected by Iraq's U.S.
governor Paul Bremer.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
.
