Posted on 08/06/2004 7:41:24 AM PDT by nypokerface
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition forces battled militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in several Iraqi cities Friday, saying they killed about 300 militants in Najaf over two days of fighting. Battles in other Shiite areas of the country have killed dozens more, according to Iraqi authorities.
The death toll among the anti-coalition fighters was among the largest in a single continuing engagement since the end of the war to oust Saddam Hussein last year.
Two U.S. Marines and an American soldier were killed in Najaf on Thursday, and 12 troops were wounded, the military said. Fifteen U.S. soldiers were wounded in Baghdad.
In Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, U.S. helicopters on Friday attacked militants hiding in a cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine in the old city at Najaf's center, where smoke could be seen rising. The fighting began Thursday in Najaf and has since spread to other Shiite areas across the country, as the truce that marked an end to a similar rebellion two months ago appeared to have been shattered.
Al-Sadr blamed the United States for the violence in Iraq in a sermon read on his behalf Friday in the Kufa Mosque close to Najaf.
The interim government had called America "our partner," he said. "I say America is our enemy and the enemy of the people, and we will not accept its partnership."
Regardless, al-Sadr's aides called Friday for a return to the truce. They asked for the United Nations and Iraq's interim government to stop the violence.
"From our side we did not want to escalate the situation, because the situation in Najaf affects that of other Shiite areas," Mahmoud al-Sudani, a spokesman of al-Sadr in Baghdad, told reporters. "But the actions of the American troops have enraged the sons of these cities."
But the government said Friday it would not tolerate independent militias, including the Mahdi Army.
The militias "are considered criminal and terrorist groups that we do not condone and that we will fight," said Georges Sada, spokesman for interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. "We will fight them and will not allow their criminal actions in the various cities, irrespective of who they are or how big they are."
In April, the Mahdi Army militia launched sustained attacks on U.S. and coalition troops in several cities, the first major Shiite violence against the Americans. The confrontation dragged on for two months until Iraqi politicians and religious leaders negotiated a series of truces.
Each side blamed the other for breaking the cease-fire. The U.S. military accused the militants of repeatedly attacking police in Najaf, and al-Sadr loyalists accused U.S. forces of surrounding the cleric's house Monday.
Some of the worst violence hit the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, where the Health Ministry said 19 people were killed and 111 wounded during fighting Thursday and early Friday between U.S. troops and al-Sadr militants. Separate attacks blamed on al-Sadr's followers wounded 15 American soldiers in Baghdad.
Militiamen also seized four police stations in Amarah, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, witnesses said.
On Friday, helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in Najaf, while Italian soldiers exchanged gunfire with militants who attacked their positions and a police station in the southern city of Nasiriyah, an Italian military spokesman said. Clashes also were reported Friday between U.S. troops and insurgents north of the capital in Samarra.
In the Najaf cemetery, gunfire and explosions rang out as U.S. soldiers and Iraqi policemen advanced toward the area, witnesses said. The streets were otherwise deserted and shops were closed.
"The area near the (Imam Ali Shrine) is being subjected to a war," said Ahmed al-Shaibany, an official with al-Sadr's office in Najaf. "Najaf is being subjected to ... total destruction.
"We call on the Islamic world and the civilized world to save the city."
The U.S. military has accused the militants of hiding in the shrine compound to avoid retaliation by U.S. forces. It had no comment on Friday's clashes.
Smoke billowed over parts of Najaf as roadside stalls burned. Many shops were closed, the streets were nearly deserted and a woman's body lay abandoned on an empty sidewalk, according to Associated Press Television News footage.
"We estimate we've killed 300 anti-Iraqi forces in the past two days of fighting," said Capt. Carrie Batson, a Marine spokeswoman.
Battles in Najaf have killed at least 13 civilians and wounded 58 others over two days, according to Najaf General Hospital officials.
The U.S. military said two Marines, one soldier and seven militants were killed Thursday in and around Najaf. At least 921 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the Defense Department.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, guerrillas attacked a convoy of 10 U.S. Humvees at dawn, witnesses said. U.S. helicopters fired rockets at insurgent positions, and the U.S. convoy pulled out.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, assailants attacked Italian troops with automatic weapons, an Italian military spokesman said on condition of anonymity. They also attacked a police station, prompting the local governor to call for Italian military assistance, he said. There were no coalition casualties, the spokesman said.
The fighting, which lasted until dawn Friday, killed eight Iraqis, including five militants, and wounded 13 others, according to AbdelKhuder al-Tahir, a senior Interior Ministry official.
"Today, the city is more stable. Policemen and National Guard are in control of government buildings on one side of the city, while Italian forces are in control of the other side. Some of al-Sadr's followers are moving in the center of the city, but the rest of the city is under our control," he said.
A coalition base near Najaf, Camp Golf, was hit by mortar fire early Friday, while rounds fired at a base housing Ukrainian troops missed their target, a Polish military spokesman said. No one was hurt.
Tensions also ran high in the southern city of Basra, where British troops clashed Thursday with the Mahdi Army. Violence there killed five al-Sadr fighters, said As'ad al-Basri, an al-Sadr official in the city.
Meanwhile, Lebanese officials said four citizens working as truck drivers are missing in Iraq, bringing to five the number of Lebanese citizens either unaccounted for or held captive by insurgents. A Foreign Ministry official said the government was trying to learn if the four were kidnapped.
No wonder Sadr wanted to return to the "truce".
We are slaughtering these guys by the bushels, folks. NO ONE in the media is "keeping score" of this, because this is the MAIN FRONT of a war, and we are winning overwhelmingly. But the way this is reported---in dribbles and drabs---no one is getting the full picture.
ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! ENEMY! .....
Not "militants", dammit! We are at WAR.
I'd blame the Americans for violence too if they were greasing my "fighters" at a rate of 100 to 1.
Allahu Fubar!
921 soldiers in 15 months vs an estimated 300 terrorists in 2 days. sounds like a quagmire all right. Good thing help is on the way.
Let's see - killing policemen or stationing guards around a house, which action violates a "cease-fire"? Hmmmm . . .
Until we decide that it's not the height of insensitivity to capture or kill Sadr, the fighting will continue.
We cannot win a war of attrition against these animals.
"We estimate we've killed 300 anti-Iraqi forces in the past two days of fighting,"
300 less men trying to kill American soldiers. Go get em guys! Nice work.
BTW, you seriously need to study up on Grozny. Take a look at http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/FMSOPUBS/ISSUES/RUSN_leslrn.htm.
It speaks directly to, especially, Fallujah in lesson #1 and #2.
Oh it gets worse... yesterday I heard the BBC report on the capture in Saudi Arabia of a 'militant linked to Al Qaeda'.
Excuse me?!? Osama Bin Laden himself would be called a 'militant' by the BBC - they've simply determined *not* to call anyone a terrorist, as if it is not a real term.
Here's an article I wrote on the theme ...
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/2004/07/naming-terrorist-enemy.html
At least he recognizes the difference.
Semper Fi
Any bets they were mostly Syrian, Palestinian, Arab and Chechen?
Yeah, it's brilliant.
Appease no one, but Sadr...nice policy.
If we had of killed this guy 9 months ago, he would have been nothing but a distant memory.
And the ones who would have remembered him would have remembered him for being a loser.
These animals understand one thing: force.
Appeasement never works.
LOL! I like that imagery. Smelly terrorists check in, but they don't check out [alive].
Another thought I had is that we're slowly but surely removing the terrorist gene pool. Sure they multiply like rabbits, but the available pool of sperm donors is dwindling day by day.
Yeah.....Sadr......the MAGNET for terrorists.....they all wanna be where "their leader" is......so let them be there....kind of like an ant pile and its queen ....
MORE! MORE!!
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