IRAQ: 12 Marines, 66 Iraqis Killed in Battles

The Las Vegas Sun ^ | April 06, 2004 at 18:16:01 PDT | HAMZA HENDAWI

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -

Insurgents and rebellious Shiites mounted a string of attacks across Iraq's south and U.S. Marines launched a major assault on the turbulent city of Fallujah on Tuesday. Up to a dozen Marines, two more coalition soldiers and at least 66 Iraqis were reported killed.

Reports from the city of Ramadi, near Fallujah, said dozens of Iraqis attacked a Marine position near the governor's palace, a senior defense official said from Washington. "A significant number" of Marines were killed, and initial reports indicate it may be up to a dozen, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities also launched a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr al-Sadr and his militia after a series of weekend uprisings in Baghdad and cities and towns to the south that took a heavy toll in both American and Iraqi lives. The fighting marks the first major outbreak of violence between the U.S.-led occupation force and the Shiites since Baghdad fell a year ago.

Two more coalition soldiers - an American in Baghdad and a Ukrainian in Kut - were killed in fighting. The deaths brought the three-day total to up to about 30 Americans and 136 Iraqis killed in the worst fighting since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

In the Ramadi fighting, heavy casualties were inflicted on the insurgents as well, officials said. It was not immediately known who the attackers were, nor whether the attack was related to fighting under way in nearby Fallujah.

On the Fallujah front, Marines drove into the center of the Sunni city in heavy fighting before pulling back before nightfall. The assault had been promised after the brutal killings and mutilations of four American civilians there last week. Hospital officials said eight Iraqis died Tuesday and 20 were wounded, including women and children.

U.S. warplanes firing rockets destroyed four houses in Fallujah after nightfall Tuesday, witnesses said. A doctor said 26 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed and 30 wounded in the strike. The deaths brought to 34 the number of Iraqis killed in Fallujah on Tuesday, including eight who died in street battles earlier in the day.

The dusty, Euphrates River city 35 miles west of Baghdad is a stronghold of the anti-U.S. insurgency that sprang up shortly after Saddam's ouster a year ago.

With fighting intensifying ahead of the June 30 handover of power to an Iraqi government, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said American commanders in Iraq would get additional troops if needed. None has asked so far, he said.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said al-Sadr and his followers were not representative of a religious cause but of "political gangsterism."

The 30-year-old al-Sadr, however, does not have a large following among majority Shiites - many see him as a renegade, too young and too headstrong to lead wisely.

"They're not acting in the name of religion, they're acting in the name of arrogating for themselves political power and influence through violence, because they can't get it through peaceful persuasion," he said.

Five Marines were killed Monday - one in Fallujah and the others on the western outskirts of Baghdad. A U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad Tuesday, a day after two more were killed there. On Sunday, two soldiers were killed in Kirkuk and Mosul. Excluding the report out of Ramadi on Tuesday evening, at least 614 American troops have died in Iraq since the war began.

Marines waged a fierce battle for hours Tuesday with gunmen holed up in a residential neighborhood of Fallujah. The military used a deadly AC-130 gunship to lay down a barrage of fire against guerrillas, and commanders said Marines were holding an area several blocks deep inside the city. At least two Marines were wounded.

The crackdown on al-Sadr, who has drawn backing from young and impoverished Shiites with rousing sermons demanding a U.S. withdrawal, sent his black-garbed militiamen against coalition troops Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Fighting in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Kut, Karbala and Amarah and in a northern Baghdad neighborhood killed 30 Iraqis, coalition military officials said. Tuesday evening, gunfire was heard in another part of Baghdad, Sadr City, where fierce battles occurred Sunday, residents said.

Fearing a U.S. move to arrest him, al-Sadr on Tuesday left a fortress-like mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where he had been holed up for days, his aides said.

Al-Sadr issued a statement saying he was ready to die to oust the Americans. He urged his followers to resist foreign forces.

"America has shown its evil intentions, and the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it. They must defend their rights by any means they see fit," the al-Sadr statement said.

"I'm prepared to have my own blood shed for what is holy to me," he said.

Al-Sadr moved to his main office in Najaf, in an alley near the city's holiest shrine, according to a top aide, Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali. Hundreds of militiamen were protecting the office Tuesday, but there was no independent confirmation al-Sadr was there.

Perhaps more worrisome than the current fight with al-Sadr's forces is the possibility that he will start drawing support from more mainstream Shiite leaders who have largely supported the Americans until now.

The U.S.-led coalition announced a murder warrant against al-Sadr on Monday and suggested it would move to capture him soon. U.S. officials would not explain why they were only releasing word of the warrant Monday. They said an unnamed Iraqi judge had issued it in the past months.

Still, the heavy battles over the past three days showed that even with limited backing, al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia is capable of a damaging fight.

The militiamen clashed with coalition troops Sunday in Baghdad and outside Najaf in fierce fighting that killed 61 people, including eight American soldiers.

In Nasiriyah on Tuesday, 15 Iraqis were killed and 35 wounded in clashes between militiamen and Italian troops, coalition spokeswoman Paola Della Casa told an Italian news agency Apcom. Eleven Italians troops were slightly wounded.

Della Casa said the Iraqi attackers used civilians as human shields, and a woman and two children were among the dead.

Fighting overnight in Amarah between al-Sadr's followers and British troops killed 15 Iraqis and wounded eight, said coalition spokesman Wun Hornbyckle.

In Kut, militiamen attacked an armored personnel carrier carrying Ukrainian soldiers, killing one and wounding five, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. Two militiamen were killed in the fight. Ukraine has about 1,650 troops in Iraq.

U.S. Marines encircled Fallujah early Monday, and on Tuesday, they penetrated several central neighborhoods for the first time. Mortar and rocket-propelled grenade blasts were heard, and one witness said a Humvee was ablaze.

Heavy fighting also occurred between Marines entrenched in the desert and guerrillas firing from houses on Fallujah's northeast outskirts. For hours into the night, the sides traded fire, while teams of Marines moved in and out of the neighborhood, seizing buildings to use as posts and battling gunmen. Helicopters weaved overhead, firing at guerrilla hide-outs.

"We are several blocks deep in the city of Fallujah," Marine Maj. Briandon McGolwan said. He said several helicopters were hit by small arms fire, but none were downed. He said Marines had detained 14 people since Monday.

L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached the June 30 handover, a date he said was inviolable.

"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," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

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Associated Press reporters Bassem Mroue and Lourdes Navarro contributed to this report from Fallujah.

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[YoSoy2]

"I think 6th level of Dante's Hell is about right for you. Enjoy."

Speaking of Dante's Hell, wasn't Fledermaus one of the demons in Dante's Inferno who transported the damned souls across the Acheronte(sp?) river and into eternal fires and cold?

[Joe Hadenuf]

We have not argued.

Thank the Lord for small miracles.

[Fledermaus]

I doubt it. But I'd love the job!

[YoSoy2]

"I've been published, have you?"

Not yet. Still writing my manuscript.

Hey, if "you've been published" so can I, don't you think?

[Fledermaus]

Probably not...the market for crap is limited!

But please, send me a copy to review!

[Joe Hadenuf]

P.S. You dare complain about Iraqis not doing more for themselves while your own state of California isn't much better?

Huh? LOL!

Are our troops being killed in California?

Yeowza! Get a grip.

Hear the news out of Florida today? Governor Jeb Bush is supporting giving legitimate driver's license's to criminal illegal aliens. Guess Florida is trying to out do what Gray Davis started.

[wattsmag2]

Thank the Lord for small miracles.

Wow, you must have sore knees then.

[Fledermaus]

No, troops aren't. But the death toll in the inner cities of LA and San Diego and others aren't much better.

[Fledermaus]

Especially if a team wins a championship!

[Joe Hadenuf]

Keep talking it feels good. Now get lost junior.

[Joe Hadenuf]

No, troops aren't. But the death toll in the inner cities of LA and San Diego and others aren't much better.

AAAARRRRRRRG!

[Fledermaus]

Doesn't the truth hurt?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Yes it does. You ought to be on your way to the hospital by now.

In any event. Gotta go.

[Fledermaus]

The truth is foreign to you my friend. But enjoy living in the world of the whine! What grapes produce that?

[wattsmag2]

I'm sorry. Perhaps you might explain that last drivel. It appears that your skill at raucous debate matches your skill at spelling, wife-arguing, etc. But really, though it has been fun watching you fail to assess the points many have tediously attempted to make so as to further your greater understanding of the topic at hand, it is time for me to travel off to engage in more productive pursuits.

However I will point out one more time why fighting in Iraq is a good thing for America.

1. Fighting terrorists there means necessarily that they are
a) contained in a smaller geographical region and thus easier to get at.
b) NOT in the US or around one of our foreign facilities threatening civilians, livelihood, and property.
c) peeing off their fellow Arabs by killing them as or more so indiscriminately than they do the US troops. (That means they soon will have fewer places to hide)
2. Having a democracy or something akin to that will be enormously helpful to US interests
a) Helps destabilize neighboring totalitarian regimes. That's Iran and Syria if you are geopolitically challenged.
b) Gives us a foothold to monitor other events in the region. Of course, you might not think the region is important, but then perhaps you ride a bike or walk to work.
c) Serves as a warning to other despots. Need you look further than Libya?

How will it all turn out? Who knows. But I am glad we are fighting them there, rather than shoveling up the pieces here.

[jaykay]

I beleive neo-cons are former liberal democrats who broke with the left over military and national security issues.
Any actual neo-cons around who can clarify?

[Joe Hadenuf]

Helps destabilize neighboring totalitarian regimes.

Look professor, this corner of the world is already destabilized. LOL! But hey, feel free to destabilize the already destabilized countries.

If we ever stop playing cop, and holding their hands over there, and you really want to stabilize that corner of the world, just be prepared to kill about 80 million of the SOBs. Otherwise, your just blowing smoke.

Having a democracy or something akin to that will be enormously helpful to US interests

You go ahead and take a couple of hundred years and make these millions of religious fanatics a real nice democracy, build them Wal-Mart's, fill them with nice American made rugs and shiny things. Be a big seller I'm sure.

Unfortunately, by the time you build Iraq into a shinning pillar of democracy, the SOBs wont have a drop of fuel left. We'll be in flying, air powered cars by then, and they'll head back into the deserts on camels and put up tents, and probably be quite happy.

But good luck on your endeavor.

[jaykay]

I also cannot understand why some people think that a Mexican coming over the border to work at a Wal-Mart is a worse threat than terrorist-sponsoring states.

Ah, that's all that's coming over that Mexican border is it? Never mind the narcotics, what about the men and materials from those terrorist-sponsoring states that will come over either that border or the Canadian one, if they are not secured?

[Justa]

"You obviously didn't read this thread, you have no credibility here."

I think Luis Gonzalez has a lot of credibility here Joe. You, on the other hand listen to liberal talk radio and then pass their 'glass-half-empty' pessimism on to the forum.

These 'uprisings' will continue for as long as Iraq is controlled by non-Shiites. They are instigated by Shiite clerics who resent their limited or diminished control over Iraq. Freedom is their enemy because it permits free will. This is one of Sadr's billboards in Najaf, he is pictured center:

Many Shiites are turning their backs on the fundamentalist clerics because they have nothing to offer but slavery and poverty.

Justice is trickling down to the little Saddams and they're striking out. Deal with it.

[Cap Huff]

Prayers for your nephew and for you and your family.