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| Rebels Launch Attacks in Four Iraq Cities, 23 Dead Thu Jun 24, 2004 04:33 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Rebels launched coordinated assaults on Iraqi police that turned several mainly Sunni Muslim cities into battle zones Thursday and at least 23 people were killed, including three U.S. soldiers. The simultaneous violence in Baquba, Falluja, Ramadi and Mosul intensified a bloody campaign by Iraqi insurgents and foreign militants to sabotage the formal handover from U.S.-led occupation to an interim government in six days' time. In Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, at least four car bombs exploded near police buildings, sending thick smoke into the air and setting cars ablaze. Police said there had been heavy casualties, but had no details. Three more blasts shook the city later, and local television ordered residents to stay at home. Police blocked off all major roads, and announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew. The U.S. military said an American soldier had been killed and three wounded in the blasts. It said a security guard was killed when gunmen attacked a private security company, but did not give the guard's nationality. Gunfire rattled across Mosul as insurgents fought running battles with U.S. troops and Iraqi police. Black-clad gunmen, some claiming loyalty to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, attacked a police station in Baquba, 60 km (40 miles) northwest of Baghdad. Nine policemen and four civilians were killed and 22 people were wounded, hospital officials said. Witnesses said scores of gunmen took control of the town's main intersection after the dawn assault on the police station, attacking any Iraqi police or U.S. troops they encountered. A U.S. military spokesman said two American soldiers had been killed. U.S. forces had responded with air strikes after gunmen captured the civic center and attacked another government building. Two insurgents were killed. ZARQAWI'S FINGERPRINTS Many of the fighters wore yellow headbands bearing the name of a Muslim militant group "Saraya al-Tawhid and Jihad" (Battalions of Unification and Holy War). They handed out leaflets warning Iraqis not to "collaborate" with Americans. "The flesh of collaborators is tastier than that of Americans," the leaflets said. Arabic television channel Al Jazeera showed hooded fighters brandishing their weapons in Baquba and saying they were followers of Zarqawi. Bodies lay in the streets nearby. Zarqawi's Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad group has claimed responsibility for many attacks in Iraq, including this week's beheading of a South Korean hostage. Insurgents fired mortars at two police stations and the house of a security official in Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, killing at least three people, witnesses said. A fourth person was killed in clashes with U.S. troops. Earlier this week, gunmen killed four U.S. Marines who had been posted on a rooftop in Ramadi. Fierce fighting broke out between U.S. Marines and rebels in Falluja. U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships swooped low over the city as gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade explosions echoed through the streets, witnesses said. The clashes raged for two hours and U.S. planes dropped 500-pound bombs on guerrilla positions, a Reuters photographer with the Marines near Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, said. There was no word on casualties. A U.S. Cobra helicopter was shot down during the Falluja fighting but the crew walked away unhurt, Marines said. Under a truce agreed last month, U.S. forces pulled out of the city and handed control to an Iraqi brigade led by army officers who had served under former President Saddam Hussein. U.S. SAYS MOST CITIES "UNDER CONTROL" Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the U.S. army in Iraq, confirmed there had been clashes in a number of Iraqi cities. "With the exception of what we are seeing in Baquba, most seem to be under control right now," he told reporters. A senior U.S. officer said the attacks were likely to have been the work of Saddam loyalists, rather than Zarqawi followers. He said 30 to 40 fighters had staged the Baquba attacks, with lower numbers in action elsewhere. U.S. forces had used laser-guided weapons against three houses in Baquba to silence small-arms fire. |
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