By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. troops battled guerrillas Tuesday on the edges of Fallujah, where hundreds of Marines and Iraqi troops have surrounded one of Iraq's most violent cities in an operation to crush the insurgency there. The military reported five Marines were killed and two wounded in the operation, which was more than 24 hours old.
With the Marines engaged in fighting around Fallujah, there was more violence in northern Baghdad in which three soldiers died Monday and Tuesday.
The U.S.-led coalition remained in a standoff with anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters and militias were responsible for clashes throughout the country over the weekend.
In a series of U.S. television interviews Tuesday, L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached a June 30 handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis.
"We have problems, there's no hiding that. But basically Iraq is on track to realize the kind of Iraq that Iraqis want and Americans want, which is a democratic Iraq," Bremer said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
But he said continuing disturbances would not affect the American handover schedule.
"June 30 is the date. We're going to stick to it," he said.
The military did not give details on the five deaths, saying only that they occurred in Anbar province, home to Fallujah. Witnesses reported another American had been killed in Tuesday's fighting, but that report could not immediately be confirmed.
The deaths in the past two days brought to at least 614 the number of Americans killed in Iraq since the war began.
The bulk of the coalition force has remained on Fallujah's edge, apparently held at bay by tough resistance from anti-American fighters against Marine forays probing the outskirts.
American commanders have vowed to root out insurgents after last week's slaying and mutilation of four American civilians. Scenes of Iraqis dragging charred bodies through the streets and hanging two of them from a bridge Wednesday raised revulsion in the United States and showed the depth of anti-U.S. sentiment in the city.
The assault on Fallujah, west of Baghdad, coincides with a tougher U.S. stand on the fiercely anti-American al-Sadr, who has built up a private militia, the al-Mahdi Army.
U.S. officials have suggested they will move soon to arrest al-Sadr, who announced Tuesday he left a mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where he has been holed up since Sunday. He is surrounded by militiamen pledging to resist any attempt to capture him.
Al-Sadr moved to his office in the nearby city of Najaf, in an alley near the city's holiest shrine, according to a top aide, Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali.
Asked if al-Sadr would resist if U.S. forces try to arrest him, al-Khaz'ali replied: "God forbid if this happens, al-Sayed will win martyrdom."
Al-Khaz'ali quoted al-Sadr as saying, "My fate will be either assassination or arrested."
In a statement released earlier, al-Sadr said he was moving to avoid bloodshed in a mosque. "I feared that the sanctity of a glorious and esteemed mosque would be violated by scum and evil people," he said. The Americans "will have no qualms to embark on such actions."
"I have pledged not to allow a drop of blood to be shed except my own," al-Sadr said. "I'm prepared to have my own blood shed for what is holy to me."
Al-Sadr's militiamen clashed with coalition troops Sunday in Baghdad and outside the city of Najaf, to the south, in fierce fighting that killed 61 people, including eight American soldiers. Clashes also broke out Monday in a northern Baghdad neighborhood.
The deaths of the three U.S. soldiers announced Tuesday occurred in a neighborhood near the scene of Monday's fighting, but the military did not release details.
The confrontation with al-Sadr and the offensive against Fallujah appeared to be a tougher approach by U.S. forces ahead of the June 30 handover.
After Sunday's violence, Bremer canceled a trip to Washington this week, a Senate aide said Monday. No reason was given, the aide said.
A senior officer in Washington said U.S. military commanders have begun studying ways they might increase troops in Iraq should violence spread.
Generals believe they have enough forces to handle the attacks, including the Shiite militia violence, but want to know what is available if the situation gets worse, said the officer, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.
In Fallujah, explosions and gunfire were heard from the city through the night Monday and into Tuesday morning, apparently U.S. troops shelling targets and clashing with guerrillas as Marines probed the outskirts with reconnaissance patrols.
A force of Marines pushed into an eastern neighborhood, clashing with guerrillas Tuesday. Gunmen carrying automatic weapons were seen in the streets. Guerrilla fire set one vehicle ablaze, said a witness, Issam Mahmoud, who said a soldier inside was killed. There was no immediate confirmation of the death.
Troops broke into houses in the neighborhood, carrying out searches, and entered a mosque, witnesses said.
U.S. troops waiting on the northern edge of Fallujah for orders to move in came under fire from nearby houses Tuesday, wounding two Marines. Tanks and Humvees moved into the neighborhood where the fire came from, and the sound of tank fire was later heard.
The military reported six Iraqis killed in fighting Monday, saying all were guerrillas, though residents said five of them were killed when helicopters hit a residential area.
In the nearby city of Ramadi, another hotbed of guerrilla activity 24 miles west of Fallujah, U.S. troops and insurgents clashed on a downtown street. One Iraqi was killed and three wounded, doctors said.
The offensive against Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, targets Sunni Muslim insurgents who have been waging a campaign of violence against U.S. forces and their allies for months.
The showdown with al-Sadr could increase tensions with Iraq's Shiite majority, although most Shiites reject the 30-year-old al-Sadr as a renegade and look to older, more moderate clerics for leaderships. U.S. officials appear to be counting on Shiites not to rally around al-Sadr if they move against him.
Violence continued Tuesday in two southern cities.
Al-Sadr supporters clashed Tuesday with British troops in the southern city of Amarah, and witnesses reported seeing Iraqis killed in the fight. British officials had no immediate comment.
Gunmen attacked Italian forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Tuesday, wounding 12 troops, the Italian Ministry of Defense in Rome said in a statement.
It said the assailants fired on the soldiers as they were patrolling a bridge over the Euphrates River. The soldiers returned fire and it was not clear if any of the attackers suffered casualties.
