Posted on 01/28/2007 11:06:07 AM PST by cgk
Edited on 01/28/2007 11:44:41 AM PST by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
| U.S., Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:16 PM ET
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 250 gunmen in a fierce battle involving U.S. tanks and helicopters on the outskirts of the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf on Sunday, a senior Iraqi police officer said. The day-long battle was continuing after nightfall, Colonel Ali Nomas told Reuters, as tens of thousands of pilgrims converged on the nearby city of Kerbala for the climax of the Ashura commemorations. A U.S. helicopter was shot down in the fighting, Iraq security sources said. The U.S. military declined comment. A Reuters reporter saw a helicopter come down trailing smoke. Shi'ite political sources said the gunmen appeared to be both Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites loyal to a cleric called Ahmed Hassani. In Baghdad, 13 people were killed in bombings in mainly Shi'ite areas, police said. Twin car bombs targeting ethnic Kurds killed 16 people as night fell in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, whose population is a volatile mix of Kurds, Turkmen and Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have converged on Iraq's other main Shi'ite holy city, Kerbala, for Ashura, marking the 7th century Battle of Kerbala, which helped consolidate the schism between Shi'ite and Sunni Islam. It ends on Monday. It is the first time the 10-day annual ritual has been held since violence erupted last February between Iraq's majority Shi'ites and once-dominant minority Sunnis. Tens of thousands have since been killed in tit-for-tat killings. The governor of Najaf province said Iraqi troops fought a day-long battle with up to 200 Sunni gunmen, including foreign fighters, holed up in orchards on the northern outskirts of the city, seat of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite clerics. Governor Asaad Abu Gilel told Reuters the authorities had uncovered a plot to kill some of the clerics on Monday, to coincide with the climax of Ashura. "There is a conspiracy to kill the clergy on the 10th day of Muharram," Najaf governor Abu Gilel said, referring to the day of the Muslim calendar on Monday. A Reuters reporter about 1.5 km (1 mile) from the fighting said he heard intense gunfire and saw U.S. helicopters rocket groves sheltering militants. He saw smoke trailing from one helicopter before it came down in the midst of the fighting. He was unable to see what had happened to the helicopter, but officers in Iraq's 8th Army Division and policemen said it had crashed and that the two crew members were dead. The U.S. military said it did not comment on operations still taking place. (Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Sherko Raouf in Sulaimaniya) |
|
|
|
Two senior Shiite clerics said, however, that the gunmen were part of a Shiite splinter group that Saddam Hussein helped build in the 1990s to compete with followers of the venerated religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They said the group, calling itself the Mehwadiya, was loyal to Ahmad bin al-Hassan al-Basri, an Iraqi cleric who had a falling out with Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr — father-in-law of the Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr — in Hawza, a revered Shiite seminary in Najaf.
The clerics spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they had been ordered not to discuss Shiite divisions.
Iraqi officials said the group of 100 to 500 fighters was discovered in the orchard Saturday night, leading to a midnight meeting of local authorities who hatched an attack plan.
“We agreed to carry out an operation to take them by surprise,” said Mr. Ghalal, the Najaf governor.
At dawn, the governor said, the area was surrounded and the offensive began. He said the fighters had antiaircraft rockets and long-range sniper rifles, and, according to a soldier involved in the fighting, Iraqi security forces encountered heavy resistance. Commanders called for reinforcements and a brigade of soldiers from nearby Babil Province joined the fight.
Eventually, Iraqi officials said, they called on the United States military for help. American tanks and helicopter gunships arrived, and gun battles continued into the night. By 10:30 p.m., the gunfire had died down and Iraqi troops began searching the area for bodies
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/28cnd-iraq.html?ex=1327726800&en=d74ee590f3e48bd0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Well it took them bloody well long enough to do that.
Try for 250 more!
Iraq claims to kill 250 insurgents near Najaf
Updated Sun. Jan. 28 2007 7:49 PM ET
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq --
U.S.-backed Iraqi troops on Sunday attacked insurgents allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shiite Muslim religious festival, and Iraqi officials estimated some 250 militants died in the daylong battle near Najaf. A U.S. helicopter crashed during the fight, killing two American soldiers.
Mortar shells, meanwhile, hit the courtyard of a girls' school in a mostly Sunni Arab neighborhood of Baghdad, killing five pupils and wounding 20. U.N. officials deplored the attack, calling the apparent targeting of children "an unforgivable crime."
Two car bombs exploded within a half hour in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 11 people and wounding 34, police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader said. Three ethnic groups -- Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen -- are in a bitter struggle for control of that oil-rich area.
In addition to confirming the two Americans killed in the helicopter crash near Najaf, the U.S. command announced three combat deaths from Saturday -- one Marine in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province and two Army soldiers in the Baghdad area.
Authorities said Iraqi soldiers supported by U.S. aircraft fought all day with a large group of insurgents in the Zaraq area, about 12 miles northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Col. Ali Nomas, spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Najaf, said more than 250 corpses had been found. Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi also spoke of 250 dead but said an exact number would not be released until Monday. He said 10 gunmen had been captured, including one Sudanese.
Provincial Gov. Assad Sultan Abu Kilel said the assault was launched because the insurgents planned to attack Shiite pilgrims and clerics during ceremonies marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar commemorating the 7th century death of Imam Hussein. The celebration culminates Tuesday in huge public processions in Karbala and other Shiite cities.
Officials were unclear about the religious affiliation of the militants. Although Sunni Arabs have been the main force behind insurgent groups, there are a number of Shiite militant and splinter groups that have clashed from time to time with the government.
Iraqi soldiers attacked at dawn and militants hiding in orchards fought back with automatic weapons, sniper rifles and rockets, the governor said. He said the insurgents were members of a previously unknown group called the Army of Heaven.
"They are well-equipped and they even have anti-aircraft missiles," the governor said. "They are backed by some locals" loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Abu Kilel said two Iraqi policemen were killed and 15 wounded, but there was no word on other Iraqi government casualties.
A U.S. statement said the American helicopter went down while "conducting operations to assist Iraqi Security Forces" in the attack. It said two crew members died and their bodies were recovered. The statement did not give any information on why the aircraft crashed.
It was the second U.S. military helicopter to do down in eight days. Twelve U.S. soldiers died Jan. 20 when a Black Hawk crashed northeast of Baghdad. The Army says it is investigating the cause, but a Pentagon official has said debris indicated it was downed by a missile.
School attack
The mortar attack in Baghdad occurred about 11 a.m. at the Kholoud Secondary School in the Adil neighborhood, police and school officials said. The principal, Fawzyaa Hatrosh Sawadi, said students were mingling in the courtyard during a break in exams when at least two shells exploded.
The blasts shattered windows in classrooms, spraying students with shards of glass. Associated Press Television News footage showed pools of blood on the stone steps and walkways. A fin from a mortar shell lay on the ground.
Hours after the attack, grieving parents wept as the bodies of their children were placed in wooden coffins. Police said four of the girls were killed instantly and a fifth died later.
In a joint statement, UNICEF and UNESCO called the attack "yet another tragic reminder of the risks facing Iraq's schoolchildren."
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but a Sunni organization, the General Conference of the People of Iraq, blamed Shiite Muslim militias with ties to government security forces. The group said in a statement that the mortar shells bore markings indicating they were manufactured in Iran, which U.S. officials accuse of supporting Shiite militias.
Three bombings, meanwhile, struck Shiite districts in Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding 61, police said.
The worst incident was a car bomb that killed at least four and wounded 39 at an outdoor market in Sadr City, a sprawling slum that is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a militia blamed for much of Iraq's sectarian bloodshed.
The mortar attack and bombings appeared to be part of the sectarian reprisal killings that have pushed Iraq into civil warfare over the past year, violence that President Bush hopes to quell by sending up to 21,500 more American soldiers to Baghdad and surrounding areas.
U.S. officials have long accused al-Qaida in Iraq, a Sunni Muslim group, of fanning sectarian hatreds by staging vicious attacks on Shiite civilians. Revenge killings have surged since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the largely Sunni city of Samarra last Feb. 22.
The two car bombs in Kirkuk exploded within 30 minutes of each other in different parts of the city, 180 miles north of Baghdad. The first blast was at a car dealership, killing six people and wounding 19, said Qader, the police general said. The second went off at a popular restaurant, killing five and injuring 15, he said.
In Baghdad, police said they found 39 bullet-riddled bodies throughout the city Sunday, apparent victims of sectarian death squads. Ten more bodies were recovered floating down the Tigris River 25 miles south of the capital.
Drive-by shooters killed a high-ranking Shiite official at the Industry and Mines Ministry along with his 27-year-old daughter and two other people, police said.
A car bomb exploded near a mosque in the Sunni city of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding four, police said.
The U.S. command announced the arrest of 21 suspected terrorists, including an al-Qaida courier, in a series of raids in Baghdad and Sunni areas north and west of the capital. Three are believed to have close ties to the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq, the military said.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070128/iraq_violence_070128/20070128?hub=TopStories
Is this the same guy? Name isn't completely the same.
They also leave off names...he fits.
4-227, 1st Cav
Iraq clashes 'kill 250 militants'
*********************AN EXCERPT *******************************
Three Iraqi soldiers had reportedly died in the battle and 21 were injured.
The US military said two of its troops died when their helicopter was shot down, but did not confirm any of the Iraqi casualty figures.
An Iraqi official in the Najaf governor's office told the BBC that 21 Iraqi soldiers had been injured in the clashes, which occurred in a neighbourhood called Zarqa, and the Iraqi army was sweeping the area.
Bull.
I have not seen much tit-for-tat.
Its more Rinky-for-Dinky. Hardly tens of thousands in vendetta killing. Its more like tens of thousands through Islamofascist bombings that are indescriminant.And this is tit-for -tat. The reporter is a tit.
And the USA is about to kill all who are armed,and let G_D sort em out.
Most Iraqis, Shia and Sunni, just want peace, food to eat, and a roof over their heads.But you would never get that from this report.
This report is $hit for Shat.
PULL IT OUT! ( thats what she was chanting in Washington yesterday)
This woman is a very, very sick person.
Your right about the fighting. I hope everyone is ready for it.
Oh yeah, right. Please tell me when the LAST time was that we killed 250 insurgents in one day in a firefight???? Our guys are now kicking @ss. They are warriors and fighting wars is what they do best. IF the politicians would stay out of it and let them do their job, this war would have been over long ago. There is NO military on the face of the earth who are as good as our guys are.
Only 1st we delt with the biggest threat. The Al Qeda-Shunni Sadamists. Since that foe is neutralized, we are moving on to the next problem.
LOLOLOL!! Now YOU are the one who has had his head in the sand. IF you REALLY believe we have "neutralized Al Qeda-Shunni Sadamists" then you need to seek help. Better yet, just send an email to President Bush and those who are in charge of every branch of the military and let them know that those "foes are all neutralized." I'm sure they'll be happy to know that! LOL!
I am starting to buy into the theory that Bush wanted to loose the election so he could get his cherished amnesty passed. May God please help us.
It's not a problem, Satan, ooops I mean, allah has been stockpiling them for years by killing our unborn daughters.
I'll counter her and raise her one, with a big loud
KEEP IT UP!!
; )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.