LOL !
By ALI AHMED, Associated Press Writer
RAMADI, Iraq - Men, children and a barefoot Iraqi woman scattered for cover as gunfire sprayed across the street, and moments later the body of a U.S. Marine lay spread-eagled on the ground. A teenage boy carried away his bloodstained flak jacket.
The spray of gunfire on Marines was the start a deadly battle Tuesday in which 12 Americans were killed, and opened another front in violence that has raged across Iraq this week.
On Wednesday, fighting persisted in the city of Ramadi, and Iraqis buried their dead. Mourners were seen bringing the bodies of 15 people killed in the battles to one cemetery, and 25 more were taken elsewhere for burial, police Col. Khalid al-Rawi said.
Ramadi is just 18 miles down the road from Fallujah, where hundreds of Marines have been battling guerrillas in the fiercest military operation in months. Both cities are strongholds for the Sunni Muslim insurgency that has killed hundreds of U.S. troops across Iraq.
But Tuesday's ambush and the three-hour gunbattle that followed was unusually deadly.
It began when Marines stopped to investigate a white civilian pickup left next to a wall on a footpath on a dusty street, its doors open as if its occupants had fled in a hurry.
Suddenly a burst of gunfire rang out, as gunmen hiding nearby in Ramadi's main cemetery opened fire. Children and adults ducked and dashed for cover.
Footage from Associated Press Television News showed one of the gunmen, a man in jeans and a T-shirt, walking down the street, an assault rifle in his hand.
On a nearby street corner, a boy walks away, a bloodied flak jacket cradled in his arms. Behind him lay its owner, a dead Marine, his shirt hiked up and blood covering his face.
More U.S. troops moved in, engaging in a battle that began in alleyways near the governor's palace, then spread over a mile-long area, U.S. commanders said.
U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said "an extensive number" of insurgents were killed.
"The enemy paid a price ... we have the bodies," said Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division, which controls Anbar province, where Ramadi is the capital.
In Wednesday's fighting, dozens of gunmen battled U.S. troops, and 18 guerrillas were killed, a Marines statement said. Marines captured eight suspected insurgents, it said.
The Marines have vowed to pacify the violent towns of Ramadi and Fallujah, which have been a center of the guerrilla insurgency seeking to oust the U.S.-led occupation force.
Signs were emerging of growing sympathy between Sunni Muslim insurgents in the region and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia has waged fierce battles with coalition and Iraqi forces in parts of Iraq this week.
In Ramadi, portraits of al-Sadr were posted on government buildings, schools and mosques, along with graffiti praising him for his "heroic deeds" and "valiant uprising against the occupier."