Over 100 Enemy Killed in U.S. Assault in Iraq (1 Oct, 04)

AP ^

[Happy2BMe]

Over 100 Killed in U.S. Assault in Iraq

U.S., Iraqi Forces Launch Offensive Against Insurgents in Samarra, More Than 100 Killed, Including a U.S. Soldier

SAMARRA, Iraq Oct. 1, 2004 — U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major assault Friday to regain control of the insurgent stronghold of Samarra, trading gunfire with militants as they pushed toward the city center. More than 100 insurgents and at least one American were killed, an Iraqi minister said.

Troops of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi Army moved in after midnight to secure government and police buildings in the city 60 miles north of Baghdad. As they advanced, insurgents attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, the military said.

Qasim Dowoud, minister of state for National Security, said more than 100 insurgents were killed and 37 others captured, including members of Saddam Hussein's regime. No foreign Arab fighters were captured, he said. A CNN correspondent embedded with the 1st Infantry Division reported that an estimated 3,000 U.S. troops moved into Samarra and 109 insurgents were killed.

Operations were continuing but the city was virtually in government hands, Dowoud said. The main mosque, one of Iraq's holiest, had been seized, along with the city hall, a pharmaceutical factory and other installations, he added. Earlier, the Interior Ministry said Iraqi and U.S. forces controlled more than 80 percent of the city by Friday afternoon.

"We are working on the complete cleanup of the city from all those terrorists," Dowoud said, describing Samarra as an "outlaw city" that had spun out of control.

"We will spare no effort to clean all the Iraqi lands and cities from these criminals and we will pave the way through these operations not only for the reconstruction but also for the general elections."

Dr. Khalid Ahmed said at least 80 bodies and more than 100 wounded were brought to Samarra General Hospital, but it was not clear how many were insurgents.

One American soldier was killed and four were wounded, said Master Sgt. Robert Powell, spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.

Smoke rose from an area around the Imam Ali al-Hadi and Imam Hassan al-Askari shrine, raising fears about one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims. But the shrine was not damaged and Iraqi forces had secured the site, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, another spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.

"Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces will do everything possible to protect the valuable site from damage," he said.

Later Friday, the city appeared calm except for American snipers on rooftops of high buildings firing at anybody in the streets below.

Some residents had fled the city of 250,000 before the attack, but in small numbers because few were expecting the assault amid news of negotiations to resolve the crisis.

The push into Samarra appeared to be the start of a promised major offensive to retake several cities that insurgents have rendered "no-go" zones for U.S. and Iraqi troops. Officials have said recapturing those cities is key before nationwide elections scheduled for January.

The offensive came a day after a string of bombings across the country killed at least 51 people, including 35 children at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant in Baghdad.

Also Friday, U.S. warplanes and tanks attacked the vast Baghdad slum of Sadr City, killing 12 Iraqis and wounding 11 others, a hospital director said. The military said only one rebel was killed.

Samarra residents cowered in their homes as tanks and warplanes pounded the city. The sound of shelling mixed with the crackle of automatic gunfire. At least three houses were flattened and dozens of cars charred, residents said.

"We are terrified by the violent approach used by the Americans to subdue the city," said Mahmoud Saleh, a 33-year-old civil servant. "My wife and children are scared to death and they have not being able to sleep since last night. I hope that the fighting ends as soon as possible."

During the push, U.S. soldiers rescued a kidnapped Turkish construction worker held in the city. He was identified as Yahlin Kaya, an employee of the 77 Construction Company in Samarra.

U.S. and Iraqi forces blocked the roads into the city to prevent insurgents from moving in and out, O'Brien said.

As Iraqi forces secured the Samarra bridge, American soldiers saw insurgents in speedboats loading ordnance on the banks of the Tigris River, the military said. Soldiers fired warning shots and the insurgents returned fire, prompting U.S. forces to destroy the boats, killing their occupants, the statement said.

Water and electricity services were cut off, and troops ordered residents to stay off the streets as they moved from house to house in search of insurgents. A 7 p.m.-to-7 a.m. curfew was announced.

The military said insurgent attacks and acts of intimidation against the people of Samarra had undermined security in the city, regarded as one of the top three rebel strongholds in Iraq, along with Fallujah and Sadr City.

The Americans returned briefly on Sept. 9 under a peace deal brokered by tribal leaders under which U.S. forces agreed to provide millions of dollars in reconstruction funds in exchange for an end to attacks on American and Iraqi troops.

In recent weeks, however, the city saw sporadic clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents.

Masked gunmen carrying the flag of Iraq's most feared terror group, Tawhid and Jihad, surfaced in force in Samarra on Tuesday, staging a defiant drive through the streets.

The group, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for bloody attacks in Baghdad on Thursday, according to a statement posted on a militant Web site.

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, and it was unclear whether the three "heroic operations" it cites attacks on a government complex and "a convoy of invading forces" included the bombs that killed the children.

Al-Zarqawi's group has also claimed to have killed several foreign hostages seized in recent months in a campaign against the United States and its allies.

An unofficial French negotiator told a radio station that two journalists who have been held hostage in Iraq for more than a month could be released within hours. Philippe Brett told Europe-1 radio that he was with the two French hostages and that negotiations were being finalized for their release.

Christian Chesnot, 37, and George Malbrunot, 41, disappeared Aug. 20 with their Syrian driver while apparently heading toward Najaf. Militants calling themselves the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility, demanding that France revoke a law banning Islamic head scarves from state schools.

Brett is not an official negotiator for the French government. However, he has worked in Iraq for years, mainly through the French Office for Development of Industry and Culture, which he helped found.

In the southern city of Kufa, meanwhile, security forces prevented hundreds of Shiite Muslim supporters of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr from entering a major mosque for Friday prayers the first such action since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Police fired in the air to disperse the faithful, but there were no reported casualties.

Authorities have prevented worship inside the mosque since August clashes between al-Sadr's militia and U.S. and Iraqi troops in the nearby holy city of Najaf. Until Friday, however, they allowed them to hold prayers in a yard outside the shrine.

The clashes ended in late August with a peace deal brokered by Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani. Since then, the cleric's office took control of the Kufa Mosque and the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, one of the holiest in Iraq.

[Happy2BMe]

A young boy holds a photograph of rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr during the Friday afternoon prayers in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Oct. 1, 2004. Several of al-Sadr's supporters have been killed in U.S. airstrikes in the slums of Sadr City in the past few days. The writing in the poster is reference to a verse in the Quran which says "Men said to them a great army is gathering against you so fear them; but it only increased their faith and they said, for us we depend only on Allah and he is the best disposer of affairs." (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

[Happy2BMe]

1ST ID - Good Guys doing what Good Guys do best - ping.

[Happy2BMe]

"More than 100 insurgents Muslim terrorists and at least one American were killed, an Iraqi minister said." - ping.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

As Iraqi forces secured the Samarra bridge, American soldiers saw insurgents in speedboats loading ordnance on the banks of the Tigris River, the military said. Soldiers fired warning shots and the insurgents returned fire, prompting U.S. forces to destroy the boats, killing their occupants, the statement said.

That's not very smart to do!

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[Happy2BMe]

Yes it is outstanding - thanks, EATB!

[2banana]

That's not very smart to do!

Ya damn straight - what in the heck are American soldiers firing warning shots for?

[Happy2BMe]

I am just waiting for Bush's reelection when we can finally put this baby to rest once and for all (with honor and due respect to those fallen who sacrificed their lives for this cause).

[Onelifetogive]

Soldiers fired warning shots and the insurgents returned fire, prompting U.S. forces to destroy the boats, killing their occupants, the statement said.

This war is SOOOOO one-sided. American soldier, "I really don't want to have to kill you......OK, fine.....I'll kill you if you insist..."

[Onelifetogive]

Ya damn straight - what in the heck are American soldiers firing warning shots for?

Because if the guys can be encouraged to surrender, they can be persuaded to give names anl locations of their buddies...

[Robert_Paulson2]

we depend only on Allah and he is the best disposer of affairs

---

yes, well then, allah disposed of about 109 of your assclown rebels yesterday.

with a little help from the 1st.

[Inyokern]

No foreign Arab fighters were captured, he said.

I think everyone believes that the ones setting off the suicide car bombs are foreigners.

We have to find those guys.

[Mr. Lucky]

We are terrified by the violent approach used by the Americans...

Learn from it.

[Happy2BMe]

1st ID - OOHRAH!

[Congressman Billybob]

Has anyone ever seen Muqtadar in the same place as Michael Moore? Put a pair of glasses on that Iraqi murderer and he'd look exactly like Moore. They think alike, too. Whatever gets me money and fame is just dandy.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "And the Debate Winner is -- Lemony Snicket"

If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[alloysteel]

Let us put a little arithmetic on this - if there were 20,000 insurgents, and they lost 100 in a 24-hour period, that is a 0.5% casualty rate in ONE DAY. For Americans to have a comparable rate, we would have to lose 650 in a single day.

If this is a war of attrition, they are steady losing....

[Zhangliqun]

"The sound of shelling mixed with the crackle of automatic gunfire."

***

Gee, ya think? That's what usually happens in battles that involve tanks and automatic weapons.

[ApesForEvolution]

An American died...more bombs and fewer troops...

[Zhangliqun]

Have you noticed that you never see Michael Moore and Muqtada al-Sadr on stage together? Hmmm...

In other news, controversy erupted when the concussion from a bomb dropped by an American warplane blew a dust bunny out the second floor window of a local resident's house. The dust bunny was trampled by Marines from the 1st Marine Division as they advanced on an insurgent position, prompting al-Sadr supporters to protest and fire their guns in the air. Apparently it was one of the holiest dust bunnies to Shiite Islam.

[DTogo]

"We are working on the complete cleanup of the city from all those terrorists," Dowoud said, describing Samarra as an "outlaw city" that had spun out of control. "We will spare no effort to clean all the Iraqi lands and cities from these criminals and we will pave the way through these operations not only for the reconstruction but also for the general elections." Qasim Dowoud - aka MR. CLEAN :)