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Fierce Firefight at Baghdad Mosque, U.S. Marine Dead
Yahoo News (Reuters) ^ | April 10, 2003 | Khaled Yacoub Oweis

Posted on 04/10/2003 7:35:39 AM PDT by formercalifornian

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Marines fought a fierce four-hour battle on Thursday at a Baghdad mosque where senior Iraqi leaders had been thought to be holed up, as U.S. warplanes attacked areas of the city under the control of Arab fighters.

Fighting was also reported near an oil refinery in southwestern Baghdad. Reuters cameraman Ahmed Bahaddou saw U.S. troops collecting 21 bodies, apparently Iraqi soldiers and civilians, on a road leading toward the international airport. Witnesses said other corpses had already been picked up.

U.S. military officials said one Marine was killed and more than 20 wounded north of the city center in the battle around the Imam al-Adham Mosque and a nearby presidential palace.

"We had information that a group of regime leadership was attempting to organize...a meeting. The fighting in and around the mosque complex could not be avoided as enemy forces were firing from the area of the mosque," said Captain Frank Thorp, spokesman at U.S. Central Command war headquarters in Qatar.

At Baghdad international airport, Major Rod Legowski of the 1st Marine Division said he could not confirm whether Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had been in the area during the battle but that the Marines were aiming at targets of "significant military value."

"The mission was successful," he said, adding that fighting lasted more than four hours, with Marines coming under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 assault rifles.

Legowski said the fighting was over but that the Marines were "still clearing the mess up."

ARAB FIGHTERS ON STREETS

Non-Iraqi Arab volunteer fighters were in control of several streets in the Aadhamiya district, where the mosque is located, and also in the nearby Waziriya district. This correspondent saw Arab fighters manning checkpoints and patrolling the area.

Arab fighters were also out in force on the streets of the Mansur district west of the Tigris river, close to the Iraqi intelligence service headquarters.

U.S. planes swooped overhead, hitting targets in areas under Arab control. But U.S. troops were nowhere to be seen in Mansur.

There was also no sign of Iraqi forces. Abandoned Iraqi artillery pieces and missile launchers could be seen in the streets. The Arab fighters appeared to be putting up the main resistance to U.S. troops in the city.

Thousands of "Mujahideen" volunteers from across the Arab world are thought to be in Iraq (news - web sites). Ahead of the war, an audio tape believed to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) exhorted Muslims to fight U.S. forces.

In the northeast of the capital, U.S. Marines swept through the Saddam City district in the early hours of Thursday, blasting forces still loyal to Saddam with heavy artillery, mortar and machinegun fire.

Planes buzzed the area in support of the Marine units and soldiers reported seeing Iraqi anti-aircraft fire arching up into the night sky against the noisy but invisible aircraft.

Military sources said the area around Saddam City, home to about two million impoverished Shi'ite Muslims, was the Marines' final objective on the eastern flank of the city center.

In Qatar, a senior U.S. general said American forces had completed a cordon around Baghdad to stop Iraqi forces moving in and to block any escape attempt by senior Iraqi leaders.

"The outer cordon in the vicinity of Baghdad really is complete," Major General Victor Renuart told a briefing.

"We believe we have cut the major routes in and out of the city, eliminating the opportunity for large forces to move in and reinforce, and certainly complicating the problem of anyone trying to leave the city."


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: arabs; fighting; iraqifreedom; kia; marines; moppingup; mosque; terrorists; usmc
Baghdad's becoming a terrorist death magnet
1 posted on 04/10/2003 7:35:39 AM PDT by formercalifornian
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2 posted on 04/10/2003 7:38:19 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: formercalifornian
Of course the media will play this up as an attack on a mosque. But, once that mosque is occupied by enemy combatants it is no longer a mosque, only a target.
3 posted on 04/10/2003 7:39:24 AM PDT by ladtx ("...the very obsession of your public service must be Duty, Honor, Country." D. MacArthur)
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To: ladtx
You can bet that footage of our marines shooting at the mosque will be all over the arab networks all day today.
4 posted on 04/10/2003 7:40:40 AM PDT by formercalifornian (Now, let's liberate South Dakota!)
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To: formercalifornian
Imam al-Adham mosque is in Adhamia. Where in Baghdad is Adhamia?
5 posted on 04/10/2003 7:41:54 AM PDT by aristeides
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To: formercalifornian
Maybe that's a good thing...let them congregate all in one place!
6 posted on 04/10/2003 7:43:06 AM PDT by Dixiekraut
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To: formercalifornian
Worse, the Imam al-Adham mosque is historic:

Imam Al-Adham Mosque - Baghdad: Islamic wall pattern. This mosque in Adhamiya was built over the shrine of Imam Abu Hanifa, who gave his name to the Hanafites. He was buried in Al-Khaizuran Cemeteries in 767 A.D., whereupon a small township grew up around the shrine called Mahallat Abi Hanifa. Three hundred years later, in 1066, the SELJUK sharaful Mulk Abu Said Al-Khuwarazmi renovated the shrine, built a large dome over it, and built a Hanafite school adjacent to it. The building went into cycles of change, destruction and reconstruction over the centuries, and was renovated by the Ottoman sultans and walis several times.

7 posted on 04/10/2003 7:44:17 AM PDT by aristeides
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To: aristeides
Oh well, if it's used to cycles of construction and reconstruction, this is just part of the cycle!
8 posted on 04/10/2003 7:47:28 AM PDT by formercalifornian (Now, let's liberate South Dakota!)
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To: ladtx
Of course the media will play this up as an attack on a mosque.

I don't think they will. Not now.

Prayers for the 20 of our wounded and their families... Prayers for the family of the fallen one.

9 posted on 04/10/2003 7:54:35 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog (May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out.)
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To: formercalifornian
I love the smell of toasted Jihadis in the morning.

B.C.
(Former Washingtonian)
10 posted on 04/10/2003 7:55:29 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Wheat is Murder! (Tilling slaughters worms.....))
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To: aristeides
Here it is:

Smoke billows in central Baghdad on April 10, 2003. U.S. Marines fought a fierce four-hour battle y at a Baghdad mosque where senior Iraqi leaders had been thought to be holed up, as U.S. warplanes attacked areas of the city under the control of Arab fighters. (Kyodo/Reuters)

11 posted on 04/10/2003 8:03:45 AM PDT by formercalifornian (Now, let's liberate South Dakota!)
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To: formercalifornian
Thousands of "Mujahideen" volunteers from across the Arab world are thought to be in Iraq (news - web sites). Ahead of the war, an audio tape believed to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) exhorted Muslims to fight U.S. forces.

But in reality, we made a fake tape of 'Osama' saying this, so we could gather as many whackos as possible in one place heh heh heh... Suckers!

12 posted on 04/10/2003 8:07:23 AM PDT by Chad Fairbanks (Some days, it's just not worth gnawing through the straps...)
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To: formercalifornian
If they are so touchy about us attacking their mosques then I think it's time to ask for Iraqi volunteers to take up arms and do it themselves. We'll fight elsewhere in the city.
13 posted on 04/10/2003 8:09:10 AM PDT by m1-lightning ("We ought not politicize this war" - Tom Daschle, 09/25/02)
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To: formercalifornian
Baghdad's becoming a terrorist death magnet

Yes, the Future Terrorist Club is being decimated.

14 posted on 04/10/2003 8:09:30 AM PDT by Cold Heat (As an American, a Veteran, a Husband, and a Father, I AM SO PROUD!)
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To: ladtx
" But, once that mosque is occupied by enemy combatants it is no longer a mosque, only a target."

Right on.

Enough kid gloves for "holy" Mosques HQing rings of steel killing U.S. troops.

Time to give a warning of surrender, then light it up with a dead on strike from an F-117.

15 posted on 04/10/2003 8:43:42 AM PDT by F16Fighter (Democrats -- The Party of Stalin and Chiraq)
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To: Chad Fairbanks
That's got to be one of the best tin-foil conspiracy theories I've heard yet. LOL!
16 posted on 04/10/2003 8:45:19 AM PDT by wimpycat ('Nemo me impune lacessit')
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To: wirestripper
"Thousands of "Mujahideen" volunteers from across the Arab world are thought to be in Iraq..."

It is to be hoped.
I think it's great that they'd all get together where we can round them up and dispose of them.

17 posted on 04/10/2003 10:58:52 AM PDT by Redbob
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To: wimpycat
It's a gift ;0)
18 posted on 04/10/2003 3:36:43 PM PDT by Chad Fairbanks (Some days, it's just not worth gnawing through the straps...)
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