10 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraqi Violence (4 April, 2004)

MyWay News ^

[Happy2BMe]

By KHALID MOHAMMED

(AP) A demonstrator tries to contain the crowds during an anti-American protest in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday...
Full Image

 

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Supporters of an anti-American cleric rioted in four Iraqi cities Sunday, killing eight U.S. troops and one Salvadoran soldier in the worst unrest since the spasm of looting and arson immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The U.S. military on Sunday reported two Marines were killed in a separate "enemy action" in Anbar province, raising the toll of American service members killed in Iraq to at least 610.

The rioters were supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. They were angry over Saturday's arrest on murder charges of one of al-Sadr's aides, Mustafa al-Yacoubi, and the closure of a pro-al-Sadr newspaper.

Near the holy city of Najaf, a gunbattle at a Spanish garrison killed at least 22 people, including two coalition soldiers - an American and a Salvadoran.

(AP) Supporters of al-Sadr's self-styled militia, the al-Mahdi Army, walk towards Kufa, Iraq, Sunday...
Full Image

Fighting in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City killed seven U.S. soldiers and wounded at least 24, the U.S. military said in a written statement.

A resident said two Humvees were seen burning in the neighborhood, and that some American soldiers had taken refuge in a building. The report could not be independently confirmed, and it was unclear whether the soldiers involved were those who died.

A column of American tanks was seen moving through the center of Baghdad Sunday evening, possibly headed toward the fighting.

The military said the fighting erupted after members of a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took control of police stations and government buildings in the neighborhood.

Protesters clashed with Italian and British forces in other cities in a broad, violent challenge to the U.S.-led coalition, raising questions about its ability to stabilize Iraq ahead of a scheduled June 30 handover of power to Iraqis.

(AP) American special forces join coalition soldiers as the Spanish base comes under attack outside...
Full Image

With less than three months left before then, the U.S. occupation administrator appointed an Iraqi defense minister and chief of national intelligence.

"These organizations will give Iraqis the means to defend their country against terrorists and insurgents," L. Paul Bremer said at a press conference.

About three miles outside the holy city of Najaf, supporters of al-Sadr opened fire on the Spanish garrison during a street protest that drew about 5,000 people. The protesters were angry over the arrest of the cleric's aide, said the Spanish Defense Ministry in Madrid.

The attackers opened fire at about noon, said Cmdr. Carlos Herradon, a spokesman for the Spanish headquarters in nearby Diwaniyah.

The Spanish and Salvadoran soldiers inside the garrison fired back, and assailants later regrouped in three clusters outside the base as the shooting continued for several hours.

(AP) American soldiers take cover as the Spanish base comes under attack outside Kufa, 15 kms north of...
Full Image

Two soldiers - a Salvadoran and an American - died and nine other soldiers were wounded, the Spanish defense ministry said. No other details were available.

More than 200 people were wounded, said Falah Mohammed, director of the Najaf health department. El Salvador's defense minister said several Salvadoran soldiers were wounded.

The death toll of at least 20 included two Iraqi soldiers who were inside the Spanish base, witnesses said.

Spain has 1,300 troops stationed in Iraq, and the Central American contingent is of a similar size. The Salvadorans are under Spanish command as part of an international brigade that includes troops from Central America.

Multiple train bombings in Madrid last month that killed 191 people have been blamed on al-Qaida-linked terrorists, who said they were punishing Spain for its alliance with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(AP) A Salvadorean soldier runs for cover as his base comes under attack outside Kufa, 15 kms north of...
Full Image

Spain's new government, elected just days after the March 11 train bombings, has promised to make good on its pre-election promise to withdraw all Spanish troops from Iraq unless command for peacekeeping is turned over to the United Nations.

In El Salvador, the defense minister said the attack will not alter his country's role in reconstruction efforts.

"It reinforces even more our decision to continue helping a country that is suffering," Juan Antonio Martinez said Sunday.

The protesters were upset over the detention of al-Yacoubi, a senior aide to the 30-year-old al-Sadr, who opposes the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. Al-Sadr is at odds with most Shiites, who hope to gain substantial power in the new Iraqi government.

Shiites comprise about 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people but were brutally repressed by the regime of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Muslim.

(AP) An American soldier runs for cover as the Spanish base comes under attack outside Kufa, 15 kms...
Full Image

At coalition headquarters in Baghdad, a senior official said on condition of anonymity that al-Yacoubi was detained Saturday on charges of murdering Abdel-Majid al-Khoei, a senior Shiite cleric who returned to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion. A total of 25 arrest warrants were issued, and 13 suspects have been arrested, the official said.

Spanish-led forces said they did not participate in the arrest.

In central Baghdad's Firdaus Square, police fired warning shots during a protest by hundreds of al-Sadr supporters against al-Yacoubi's arrest. At least two protesters were injured, witnesses said.

In Kufa, near Najaf, al-Sadr supporters took over a police station and seized guns inside. No police were in sight.

In the southern city of Nasiriyah, Italian troops traded fire with militiamen demonstrating against al-Yacoubi's detention, said Lt. Col. Pierluigi Monteduro, chief of staff of Italian troops in the region. One Italian officer was wounded in the leg.

Also in the south, British troops clashed with protesters in Amarah, according to the Ministry of Defense in London. It was unclear whether there were casualties.

Al-Sadr's office in Baghdad issued a statement later Sunday calling off street protests and saying the cleric would stage a sit-in at a mosque in Kufa, where he has delivered fiery weekly sermons for months.

Al-Sadr supporters also were angered by the March 28 closure of his weekly newspaper by U.S. officials. The Americans alleged the newspaper was inciting violence against coalition troops.

The two U.S. Marines, both assigned to the 1st Marine Division, were killed by an "enemy action" in Anbar province Saturday, the military said. One died Saturday and the other Sunday, the statement said without providing details.

Anbar is an enormous stretch of land reaching to the Jordanian and Syrian borders west of Baghdad that includes Fallujah, a city where four American civilian contractors were slain Wednesday.

At a checkpoint in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, that was manned by Iraqi Civil Defense personnel, a bomb killed three security officers and wounded another, workers at Samarra General Hospital said.

In Kirkuk, also in the north, a car bomb exploded, killing three civilians and wounding two others, police said.

Bremer on Sunday announced the appointments of Ali Allawi, the interim trade minister, as the new defense minister and Mohammed al-Shehwani, a former Iraqi air force officer who fled Iraq in 1990, as head of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service.

Late Sunday, U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and a team that will assist Iraqis in the political transition to an interim Iraqi government arrived in Baghdad, the United Nations said.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I know, and some of the questions I have asked here, go unanswered.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Got mail.....

[tessalu]

The USA is not doing enough to crack down on terrorism in Iraq. Old fools are sending our young men to die, and still give the terrorists free reign, and this is just not going to work. These young men are dying for some fools political correctness. We need to really mean business or get out. We can do if if we have the will, but it will not be pretty.

[Rokke]

Well, if it's any help at all, just rest absolutely assured that the people making the military decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan are military. And we've got a good team there. A damn good team. You've got some of the best minds in the United States Marine Corps making the tactical decisions on how to respond in Fallujah. That's like holding four aces on a table full of rich, drunk fools. Ease back and watch the pot grow. It's all yours anyway.

[lawdog]

What they know is....

ISLAM is a DEATH CULT!

These bastards, including the clerics that vomit their "jihad" threats need to be vaporized. Bush better get with it...the dems are salivating with their eyes on November. Personally, I think the Brass has gone wobbly.

[Salem]

Right back at you. I don't care who or where you fought, it doesn't give you the right to insult anybody at Free Republic.

[Dave Elias]

Errr, they're Sunnis not Shi'ites. The fact that you don't know the difference sort of highlights the fundemental issue.

[samtheman]

We need to really mean business or get out. We can do if if we have the will, but it will not be pretty.

You are right.

[samtheman]

Harry Truman their A$$ES!!!!!

I nominate this as the Most Creative Verbification of a Noun for the year 2004.

[TomasUSMC]

This will show you why we are so screwed up in Iraq now.

Marine Corps commanders said they planned no change in their long-term tactics in Fallujah as a result of the deaths yesterday. Major General James Mattis, commanding the First Marine Division, has told troops that the test of their mettle will be not to lash back at the Iraqis because of casualties.

To the division's classic motto, "No better friend, no worse enemy," Mattis has affixed a preface for the mission in the Anbar Province, which includes Fallujah: "First, do no harm."

FIRST DO NO HARM. Now in the nastiest crap hole on earth with RPGs and mines and bullets flying like hail our brave Marines are being ordered by their commanding officer:

FIRST DO NO HARM.

that is treason. That is insane. Major General James Mattis should be thrown in the brig at once.

[Lion in Winter]

You called me a name, didn't you? So, I guess YOU can call folks "keyboard commandos" and insult them... BUT folks here cannot express their opinion that some here are ACTING like panic stricken "girls".

Bush is President and I think he knows what he is doing and will do the best job he can to get us out of Iraq.

I have a whole bunch of relatives in the various branches of the service... medics, pilots, sailors and even an Army Doctor in Iraq right now.

I refuse to panic about the recent violence against the troops.

[MEG33]

Shiites loyal to a young murdering cleric are today's rioters and killers.The ones who did the body burning outrage were Sunni.

[lawdog]

FIRST DO NO HARM.
SH##, it is worse than I thought. This dip-sh#$ thinks he's running a boys school for doctors. Chesty Puller is rollin' in his grave !

[B4Ranch]

>>Against my better judgment, I got carried away with the optimism of the Bush Administration regarding the desire of the Iraqi people to move toward some sort of democracy or any kind of enlightenment. I fell for this because I wanted to believe it, though reasoned thought told me otherwise. <<

“The masses live by, and are ruled by, subconscious and emotional thought process. The crowd has never thirsted for the truth. It turns aside from evidence that is not to its taste, preferring to glorify and to follow error, if the way of error appears attractive enough, and seduces them. Whoever can supply the crowd with attractive emotional illusions may easily become their master; and whoever attempts to destroy such firmly entrenched illusions of the crowd is almost sure to be rejected.”

[justshutupandtakeit]

I don't count 10 American soldiers killed in this story.

[Blue Scourge]

Damn...this thread is turning ugly real quick.....

[derlauerer]

Harry Truman their A$$ES!!!!!

I nominate this as the Most Creative Verbification of a Noun for the year 2004.

I disagree. I think "Verbification" is the most creative verbification of a noun for the year 2004.

[samtheman]

The Coalition did not finish the Iraq war before trying to move to a political settlement. Now, the Coalition forces are facing growing opposition from more than just the old Saddam supporters.

The Coalition may still have 'to finish that war' before a new government will succeed.

And I believe it's not too late. This is winnable. We've just got to kill more badguys. More than we have been.

Stories are coming back through the press. You catch wind of them. Of soldiers feeling held-back, constrained. Just like in Vietnam.

[justshutupandtakeit]

YEAH we should have done X the DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY we should IGNORE the fact we have been there only a year and pretend it has been fifty. Lord what a load of crap you armchair tacticians are trying to sell. And you can't tell the difference between a skirmish and a battle.

My God what happened to the American people who knew that war brought pain and suffering and required patience to achieve victory? Have they ALL been replaced by shallow nitwits crying from the back seat "Are we there, Yet?" "Are we there yet?" "I gotta go to the bathroom."

Fortunately the adults in charge understand their business.

[Happy2BMe]

"Damn...this thread is turning ugly real quick....."

UGLY is seeing American citizens strung up like skinned chickens with their heads cut off with over 300 Iraqis dancing in their blood.

UGLIER is if Bush lets our boys continue to be Allah fodder without giving them authorization to retaliate against a ruthless enemy.

THAT will get downright WICKED.