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Posted on 04/04/2004 4:22:35 PM PDT by Happy2BMe
By KHALID MOHAMMED
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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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
"As a Lieutenant, he served as a rifle and weapons platoon commander in the 3d Marine Division. As a Captain, he commanded a rifle company and a weapons company in the 1st Marine Brigade. As a Major, he commanded RS Portland. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he commanded 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, one of Task Force Ripper's assault battalions in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. As a Colonel, he commanded 7th Marines (Reinforced). As a Brigadier General, he commanded 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade and then Task Force 58, during operations in southern Afghanistan."
Yeah, sounds like a real wimp. Call me crazy, but I think I trust his judgement more than the "experts" here on FreeRepublic.
Was the “Overwhelming and Decisive Response” just an April Fools Joke?
The economic news is great, and I see Bush gloating, as he should. In fact, it’s such good news, and especially good news for the Bush Administration with over 300,000 jobs added last month, well I guess what happened in Fallujah is already an “old news cycle”? It doesn’t seem to me that Bush is very upset about what happened in Fallujah. Yes, he called it brutal, and all. And there was a general who told us, on April 1 st, that the response is going to be overwhelming and decisive. But Bush doesn’t sound like he’s been overwhelmingly and decisively pissed off or nothing about it. Hmmm... Some reports are saying that US troops have sealed off Fallujah, and that US troops are cordoning off the city, and need about 48 hours.
And then ... the overwhelming and decisive response is going to happen.
Well, I hope so. I mean, I hope this “response” talk of April 1st doesn’t all turn out to be an April Fools Joke.
Because there is nothing funny about it.
Because, I agree with what a lot of conservative commentators are saying. What just happened in Fallujah, and what we do about it in the next 48 hours, was the line in the sand, the defining moment, and will BE the defining panorama of what the closing chapter of the entire Iraq war will be and the consequences it will have for the safety and future of our entire nation, and probably the Western world.
If we don’t do jack in the next 48 hours, then we may as well just leave Iraq right now, of which the left will have their glory day, their hopes of the eradication of what is good in America a very real prospect now more closer than ever in their wildest dreams.
I’m not the only one saying it. Turn on the radio and listen to some of our conservative talk hosts. Give it another couple days, either we do something, or we may as well just leave. Either way, staying around while doing nothing about it, or just leaving, either way, we have lost. The true impact of the loss to America will not be immediate. No. It may take a few years. But that will be the impact.
Do something. Or just leave.
They better do something.
And it better be overwhelming and decisive.
I know – we are told, there won’t be any T.V. crews allowed, if, when it happens.
But if, when it happens, we will know. And somehow, we will get to watch, and hear.
So, we are all waiting. To watch it. And hear it.
We are told, to be patient.
I am being patient.
No one, except maybe Michael Savage, is yelling. Yet.
Very patient.
And, it better be decisive. And overwhelming. And, it better not be food rationing. Or two hours a night of no electricity. The overwhelming and decisive response, well, it better not be that. Because, that isn’t overwhelming, and it sure isn’t decisive. It better be that those who did this are dead.
This is a war, and everyone is saying it’s a war - the Bush Administration is saying it’s a war, the conservatives are saying it’s a war, and more than a few are saying it’s really a world war, WWIII, against them, the Muslim fanatics et all whatever their flavor.
So we have to kill them. Because they started to kill us first.
This little backward, freakish, town of maybe 500,000, called Fallujah, they said they were the “Graveyard of America”. And, like so many backward, freakish, towns in history, a town which should have been just a footnote in history, they somehow become, in fact, the place, the decisive moment, the line in the sand, that freakish place of ghouls. The place, or even the turning point, of some great historical significance. Usually, the little town, or village, invite it upon themselves. Ghouls have a way of doing that.
This is very likely one of those places. This is very likely the defining moment. And place.
So it better be what they said it’s going to be.
We are all waiting.
They were all there. But have you ever tried targeting a sniper who is standing amongst several thousand protestors? One of the most challanging threats our guys face is a lightly armed mob. Do you suppose it would be a net gain for our troops in Iraq if we unleashed an AC-130 on a crowd of "civilians". Is an M1A1 a good weapon to respond with against a two man RPG team running around in alleys too narrow to ride a bike in? We train our military to target combatants. We don't train them to spray fire into lightly armed mobs.
"We will win this fight".
BTTT x 100
Excellent post and very well put.
If my post #93 had not been pulled, you and everyone else would have seen what a LIGHTLY-ARMED MOB to five former U.S. Navy Seals.
Try again, Rokke.
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