Blast Destroys Iraq Building, Injures GI (Baghdad area, WMD Search?)

An explosion leveled a building in Baghdad as U.S. troops raided it Monday, wounding at least one U.S. soldier and several Iraqis. Heavy fighting broke out in Fallujah, west of the capital, despite attempts to extend a cease-fire.

In the south, U.S troops rolled into a base in Najaf to replace Spanish forces who are withdrawing and to increase pressure on the militia of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The deployment brings the Americans about three miles from holy sites at the heart of the city.

Shiite militias remain a threat in other southern cities, and on Sunday insurgents in Karbala fired at Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov's motorcade during a brief visit to Iraq. The president's security detail fired back, and the attackers fled.

U.S. commanders have said they will not go near the holy shrines in Najaf's ancient center, a move that could spark widespread outrage among Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority.

The U.S. military will take over security duties throughout Najaf province and the neighboring province of Qadisiyah after the withdrawal of Spanish, Dominican and Honduran forces this month, said a Polish spokesman, whose country's forces lead multinational peacekeepers in the area.

The extension of U.S. forces would be a major reversal of American efforts to hand security duties in the south to its allies. But the coalition has been frayed by the Spanish-led pullout and the eruption of fighting in the previously more peaceful south.

Spain's former prime minister, meanwhile, issued his harshest public assessment of his successor's policy shift, calling the planned pullout of Spanish troops "appeasement."

The Baghdad explosion occurred when U.S. troops broke into a shop on the ground floor of a building in the northern Waziriya district. Moments afterward, the blast went off, leveling the front half of the one-story building and setting ablaze four Humvees parked outside.

A female American soldier was seen being taken away by troops, her face and chest severely burned. Witnesses reported seeing up to 10 U.S. soldiers being loaded into ambulances. A U.S. military spokesman confirmed Humvees were destroyed in the blast, but could not confirm U.S. casualties.

Teenagers later dragged away one of the burned-out Humvees, stripped it of equipment, and set it ablaze again. Some were seen afterward waving U.S. weapons.

"This is for the madman Bush, for the madman Bremer," said one youth, waving a rifle and referring to President Bush and the top American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer.

Residents differed over what was in the building. Some said it held a perfume factory, others said there has once been a scrap metal workshop that repaired weapons and recycled old ammunition.

Monday's fighting in Fallujah sent two large columns of heavy black smoke over the northern Jolan district, a poor neighborhood thought to have a large concentration of Sunni insurgents. Explosions rang out, along with the sound of mortars and heavy machine guns.

The fighting came a day after U.S. officials announced that a fragile cease-fire would be extended for two days and that political efforts at a resolution would continue, backing off warnings earlier this week that U.S. Marines could launch a full-fledged offensive in the city within days.

As part of the extended cease-fire, Marines are to begin joint patrols in Fallujah alongside Iraqi security forces - a measure aimed at showing some degree of control in the city without launching a new assault.

Marines began training Iraqi security forces Monday to join them on patrols, which are due to start by Thursday.

The move carries a risk: There was little guarantee that guerrillas - who Marines say have not abided by other parts of past negotiated agreements - will not attack the patrols.

Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said the foot patrols would be backed by armor and air support. He said patrols coming under fire wouldn't necessarily spark a renewal of a general U.S. offensive.

"We're perfectly happy to move down the street, destroy a bad guy over here and just continue on with the patrol," he said.

In Najaf, about 200 troops and military police rolled into the Spanish base. The move deploys U.S. troops within the Najaf urban area for the first time since a large force massed outside the city earlier this month to put down the Al-Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The base compound was pockmarked with shells and shrapnel from earlier attacks. The golden domes of the Shiite shrines at Najaf's center - a no-go zone for the Americans - were visible from inside the compound.

Overnight, al-Sadr's forces shelled the base with 21 mortars, and one Salvadoran soldier was wounded, said Col. Pat White, commander of the U.S. 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, which moved into the base.

Spanish troops at the base are due to leave within days, and the Americans moved in to ensure al-Sadr militiamen did not overrun the site.

"We are going in to allow the Spanish troops to leave safely and so that the compound is not left empty," White said. "We don't want al-Sadr's militia to take it over. It is not an offensive operation."

The move also gives U.S. forces a foothold in Najaf from which to pressure al-Sadr, who is holed up in the center of the city near the shrines, where his militiamen largely control the streets.

The base - actually two adjacent bases called Baker and Golf, one with Salvadoran troops, the other with Spaniards - lie in the modern part of Najaf, an urban extension that melds with the neighboring city of Kufa.

Phil Kosnett, of the U.S.-led coalition authorities in Najaf, said al-Sadr's people are "trying to project the image of Najaf as a calm and peaceful place, but people are very frightened, they want al-Sadr to leave."

Businesses are open part time, most schools are closed and the local government is basically shut down, he said. "We continue to be mortared every night ... talk of a cease-fire is ludicrous."

U.S. troops will take over security duties across Najaf and Qadisiyah provinces around May 27, said Polish Col. Robert Strzelecki, spokesman of the multinational troops that control those provinces and three others.

Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic - under the Polish-led force - have been patrolling Najaf and Qadisiyah.

Last week, new Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who opposes the U.S.-led war in Iraq, ordered Spanish troops home as soon as possible. Honduras and the Dominican Republic decided to pull their forces soon afterward.

Zapatero's Socialist party beat Jose Maria Aznar's conservative Popular Party in March 14 elections, just three days after commuter-train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and injured more than 2,000.

"The government has taken the road of appeasement, a road that history has shown to be the worst possible when dealing with threats," Aznar wrote in a signed opinion column published Monday by the Madrid-based newspaper ABC.

Aznar backed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but it was vehemently opposed by most Spaniards.

Falluja Battle Sours Deal; Blast Hits WMD Hunters

Mon Apr 26, 2004 08:33 AM ET

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	Falluja Battle Sours Deal; Blast Hits WMD Hunters
	N.Korea Blast Toll Seen Rising; Hospitals Overwhelmed
	Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

By Fadel Badran

FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. air strikes on Falluja and sharp skirmishes with guerrillas inside the besieged city Monday threw doubt on a deal U.S. officials had hoped might end one of their biggest problems in Iraq.

At least 10 U.S. Marines were wounded, four seriously.

In a rare reminder of the original trigger for last year's invasion, a Baghdad warehouse blew up during what seems to have been a raid by the force hunting Saddam Hussein's still elusive chemical and biological weapons. Four U.S. military vehicles were destroyed but the casualty toll remained unclear.

With the clock ticking down to a planned handover of formal sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30, the U.S.-led occupation forces are confronting twin dilemmas posed by besieged anti-American fighters from both main religious groups in Iraq -- minority Sunni Muslims in Falluja and Shi'ites in the holy city of Najaf.

A deal struck Sunday with civic leaders in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, aimed at putting joint patrols of U.S. Marines and Iraqi police on the streets Tuesday, when an offer to the insurgents to lay down their heavy weapons expires. Local people were deeply skeptical, however.

"I expect the U.S. and Iraqi forces to be exposed targets for the resistance. No one can control the feelings of the sons of Falluja because they are very angry," said one local man, Abdul Hakim Shaker, shortly before Monday's fighting broke out.

The battle that broke out shortly before noon, seemed to bear out those fears. Residents said guerrillas opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades when U.S. forces began probing into the town from the north.

After Marines replied with heavy machineguns, jets and Cobra attack helicopters flew overhead. Big explosions threw up thick black plumes of smoke. Residents said they saw corpses on the streets and an imam accused the Americans of hitting his mosque.

MARINES WOUNDED

A U.S. reporter in Falluja quoted a Marine officer as saying four Marines were very seriously wounded and six others less badly hurt. Guerrillas had forced them to retreat from two buildings after making them "fight for their lives," he said.

Of the 519 U.S. service personnel killed in action since the invasion in March 2003, more than 110 have died this month, many at Falluja. Continued ...

Falluja Battle Sours Deal; Blast Hits WMD Hunters

Mon Apr 26, 2004 08:33 AM ET

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	Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

Doctors in the town say some 600 people have been killed in the three weeks since U.S. forces retaliated for the murder and mutilation of four American security guards. Many more have fled the Sunni city of 300,000.

U.S. officials estimate there may be up to 2,000 guerrillas in the town, of whom some 200 may be foreign Islamic militants.

Many local people in an area once loyal to Saddam's Sunni-dominated secular regime share a sense of grievance at the way U.S. forces have behaved toward them and are deeply skeptical of the chances for Sunday's deal on joint patrols.

"They will refuse to put up with American tanks and armored vehicles on their streets," said Falluja resident Shaker. U.S.-trained Iraqi police have also been subject to bloody attacks in Falluja.

CHEMICAL RAID?

U.S. troops at the chemicals storehouse which exploded in Baghdad appeared to have included members of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) hunting for weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Witnesses said at least one of those in the raiding party was wearing what looked like a chemical warfare suit. Residents showed Reuters at the scene two ISG identity cards and two aerial photographs of the targeted house and adjacent buildings marked "secret." The photographs bore the ISG logo.

Witnesses said the building blew up when about 12 U.S. soldiers tried to break in. The troops then left in those vehicles not burned out in the blast, evacuating at least one apparently dead body and four wounded Iraqis.

"There was a huge ball of fire and I was thrown to the ground," said Imad Hashim, a local resident.

There was no sign of special precautions being taken against contamination in the wake of the blast.

A spokesman for the occupying forces said only: "We are aware of an explosion which took place in Baghdad this morning. There are no reports of coalition casualties at this time."

The United States set up the ISG last year after toppling Saddam. It has yet to report finding any of the weapons which were a key argument for the U.S. and British invasion. Continued ...

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Falluja Battle Sours Deal; Blast Hits WMD Hunters

Mon Apr 26, 2004 08:33 AM ET

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	Falluja Battle Sours Deal; Blast Hits WMD Hunters
	N.Korea Blast Toll Seen Rising; Hospitals Overwhelmed
	Three U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq

In Najaf, the other main center of confrontation, 200 U.S. troops entered the holy city, despite a plea from Iraq's senior Shi'ite cleric not to. They said, however, it was not an offensive against Moqtada al-Sadr's encircled anti-American militia but merely to cover the withdrawal of Spanish troops.

TROOP REALIGNMENT

The new Spanish government, elected after bloody train bombs in Madrid were claimed by Muslims opposed to the occupation, is pulling out.

Following a deadly few weeks, other allies are considering doing likewise, prompting Britain, which has the second biggest contingent, to consider sending more troops. Ex-Soviet Georgia, keen for stronger U.S. ties, said it would nearly quadruple its contingent to about 550 men.

Underlining the dangers faced by those still there, a convoy including Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov was fired on when he visited Bulgarian troops in Kerbala, near Najaf.

In the southern city of Basra, oil exports from its main terminal resumed a day after suicide attacks forced operations to halt. The terminal accounts for around 85 percent of exports.

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Reuters: Falluja Battle Sours Deal; Blast Hits WMD Hunters

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