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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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.

[Rokke]

IGNORANT is someone who doesn't realize that Bush has giving the military all the authority it needs to conduct operations in Iraq.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Fortunately the adults in charge understand their business.

Yeah, we can tell how serious they are about America's security and terrorism, while millions crash our borders routinely, creating epic, nationwide fraud, crime, while choking off our schools, social services etc. Not to mention the titanic national security time bomb this has created.

You betcha, the adults are in charge.

[TomasUSMC]

Because of our failure to react quickly after Fallujah we are having to relearn the following:

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
Winston Churchill

[Salem]

You started it.

The writer, who I know pretty well, wasn't panicking, even if the tone of his of his presentation could be perceived as such.

The events of the last 72 hours in Iraq are notable enough to be defining events. Therefore, some of the comments of FReepers on this thread in voicing their concerns and hopes the Bush team handles this well.

I have no doubts of the caliber of the Bush Administration, nor their abilities to handle the Iraq theater. Yet, his Administration is under the influence of many competing groups and cultural and global social trends that daily provide growing hurdles to the American nation.

It generates some concern, even in the light of the caliber of this Administration, and the abilities, excellence, and professionalism of the men and women of the combined armed forces of the United States wherever they serve.

My respects and regards to yours serving in harm's way overseas, as well as Happy2BMe's.

[Happy2BMe]

My post #93 was pulled.

If you had seen it, you would know our military is NOT USING RETALIATORY FORCE within their means to eradicate the enemy threat.

They are being ordered to STAND DOWN.

This is going to cream Bush. Sooner rather than later (if it keeps up.)

[lawdog]

They are being ordered to STAND DOWN.

If this is true this bodes very ill.

[txhurl]

Thank you.

I need vengeance.

[ride the whirlwind]

WE didn't start this war.

Bingo! (a Yooper 2)

[txhurl]

What are you saying and will you please post it in a manner so as not to be pulled? Stand down? What?

[LonghornFreeper]

>>I have seen many posts on this thread which express an opinion exactly in keeping with what the body-mutilators in Fallujah had hoped for. They wanted the video evidence of their actions to influence American public opinion on the war, the same way they influenced Spanish opinion immediately prior to the Spanish elections.

No, you are completely missing the point. It is not the murders in Fallujah that is causing many here, myself included, to doubt the Bush administration's resolve, it is the INACTION in Fallujah. An American general promised this nation and the world an overwhelming response to the brutal murders. There is just no reason with the amount of force we have over there and the amount of aircraft within striking distance that this response couldn't have been delivered within hours, or at least days, of the murders. Going door to door and finding the individuals who killed the contractors accomplished nothing. Hundreds if not thousands supported and cheered on the killers, it is they who must pay if we are to have any hope of winning the war.

[Rokke]

"They are being ordered to STAND DOWN"

And you believe Bush has ordered this fictional "stand down"? Apparently you believe good tactical planning is done instantly. You must also believe it is wise to strike back as soon as the enemy hits you. You obviously haven't had much input into our recent, very succesful military operations.

[Happy2BMe]

It will eventually be reflected here:

Iraqi Coalition Casualty Report

[Robert_Paulson2]

agree

[Happy2BMe]

The STAND DOWN order is being issued with different terminology - FIRST DO NO HARM

[txhurl]

Do you know, most of us respect 'loose lips sink ships.'

You don't have to deflect much, here. We really just want to know

WHEN DOES FALLUJAH AND AL'SADR GET THEIR BIRTHDAY CAKE??

Please, it seems we need you and don't take offense, we simply have American blood which is boiling and will not be sated until our dead in Iraq is avenged. I know I say things I shouldn't today, yesterday, tomorrow. Passions are off the scale, but you know that, if you're a regular here.

[LonghornFreeper]

>>IGNORANT is someone who doesn't realize that Bush has giving the military all the authority it needs to conduct operations in Iraq.

Really? Then where were the Apaches today? What about the AC-130's? The SuperCobras? The M1A1's? If we can't handle fighting off a lightly armed mob we are in big trouble.

[Robert_Paulson2]

cut it out...
the "appeasniks" here, touting the myth of the moderate muslim, and the strategery of doing nothing for several hours after our civilians were taking fire, calling for help... and ending up roasted like pigs on a spit... , and asserting that the overwhelming response is on the way... for a week...

well, they might just get upset and call you a churchillian hot head.

raze fallujah.
kill the sheiks and the imams who are wavering in their support of a free iraq...
or just turn sadaam loose on them again.

sadaam did not create the islamic mentality.
the islamic mentality created sadaam... and kadhaffi.. and arafatty... and yassin... and usami... and on and on and on.

ISLAM IS THE PROBLEM... STUPIDS IN DC!
It is NOT PEACE.

Don't blame islamic leaders... the leaders flow from the perverted death cult that targets americans, christians, jews, hindus, budhists and "Not muslim enough muslims."

RAZE fallujah.
or get out.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Greg Weston]

10 more huh? Satisfied with that neo-CONS?? Guess it's not your backsides on the line is it? All we can do is kick your sorry butts out of office. Which we should big time.

[Robert_Paulson2]

the rules of engagement have obviously been changed.
by who?
why?

Islam is not peace.
the war in Iraq is NOT over.
terms of surrender have not been signed.
TOO Many american servicemen have been killed without SIGNIFICANT and PAINFUL costs to the IRAQI POPULATION in general.

Either take the constraints off our service men, or call them home...
Those savages cooked our good people like pigs on a spit for hours after the hit job and the murders and the calls for help... the MARINES SAT IN THEIR PLACE... NOT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO, but because somebody up the chain did not think the civvies, former seals and rangers themselves, were worth going after.

they died like pigs... just like the islamics say we are.
for what?
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT by somebody in the adminstration of this war. BREMMER? If so, he should be terminated by now.

Take the gloves off and bloody up the KNOWN strongholds of militancy with FIRE and STEEL... RAZE fallujah and the militant mosques with their sheiks and imams or get out... and surrender to the terrorists. We don't have the balls to defend our own, if it hurts any collatoral target of innocence... so said the general.

damn.