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U.S. Hits Mosque Compound; 40 (Militants ) Said Killed
The Las Vegas Sun ^ | April 07, 2004 at 11:11:02 PDT | BASSEM MROUE and ABDUL-QADER SAADI

Posted on 04/07/2004 11:47:56 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -

U.S. Marines in the third day of a battle to pacify this Sunni Muslim city fired a rocket and dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb on a mosque compound Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to key cities in Iraq.

The fighting in Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi has killed 15 Marines since Monday and was part of an intensified uprising involving both Sunni and Shiites that now stretched from Kirkuk in the north to the far south.

Marines waged a six-hour battle around the mosque with the militants holed up inside before a Cobra helicopter fired a Hellfire missile at the base of its minaret, and an F-16 dropped the bomb, said Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne.

The fight began when a Marine vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from the mosque, wounding five Marines, Byrne said. A large U.S. force converged on the mosque.

Witnesses said the strike came as worshippers had gathered for afternoon prayers.

An Associated Press reporter saw cars ferrying the dead and wounded from the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque. Witnesses said part of a wall surrounding the mosque compound was destroyed but the main building was not damaged.

In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told CNN that from photos of the mosque he had seen, "the actual mosque structure itself" was not damaged.

"It is a holy place, there is no doubt about it," Kimmitt added. "It has a special status under the Geneva Convention that it can't be attacked.

"However, it can be attacked when there is a military necessity brought on by the fact that the enemy is storing weapons, using weapons, inciting violence and executing violence from its grounds," he said.

Temporary hospitals were set up in private homes to treat the wounded and prepare the dead for burial. There was no immediate confirmation of the number of dead.

Byrne said the Marines controlled about a quarter of Fallujah.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said U.S. forces launched the operation in Fallujah to capture insurgents involved in attacks on Americans, including the ones who mutilated and burned the bodies of four U.S. civilians ambushed last week. He said the troops had pictures and names of those involved and were not attacking the town as a whole.

But militants, who have wide support among the population, dug in and fiercely resisted the U.S. raids into the city center and attacked American troops encircling the city of 200,000. The intensity of the resistance apparently prompted U.S. forces to bring in heavy weapons such as helicopters, tanks and AC130 gunships that have pounded suspected militant sites in the densely populated neighborhoods.

Since Sunday, 32 Americans, two other coalition soldiers and more than 190 Iraqis had been killed in fighting across the country. The Iraqi figure did not include those killed at the mosque.

Kimmitt vowed to "destroy" the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which has been behind the wave of attacks and street fighting with coalition troops in southern cities and Baghdad this week.

Al-Sadr said Iraq will become "another Vietnam" for the United States unless it transfers power to Iraqis who are not connected with the U.S.-led occupation authority.

"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army, to help them in the transfer of power to honest Iraqis," al-Sadr said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."

Al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army launched heavy gunbattles with coalition forces in the streets of three southern cities Wednesday and, for the first time, in the north. Al-Sadr fighters battled American troops in the town of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, hitting a U.S. helicopter with small arms fire. The OH-58 Kiowa chopper was damaged and forced to land, but the two crewmembers were unharmed.

And Shiite gunmen drove Ukrainian forces out of the southern city of Kut - raising concerns over the ability of U.S. allies to control al-Sadr's uprising.

After gunbattles overnight killed 12 Iraqis, the Ukrainians withdrew from Kut, and al-Sadr followers swept into their base, seized weapons stores and planted their flag on a nearby grain silo.

The black-garbed gunmen of the al-Mahdi Army also had virtual control of Kufa and Karbala, where Iraqi police lay low, allowing militiamen to move freely and acting only to prevent looting. Militiamen in Karbala clashed with Polish patrols that moved through their areas, and a cleric who was a senior official in al-Sadr's office in the city was killed.

Al-Sadr and his militia are unpopular among most of Iraq's Shiite majority, and there was no sign that the Shiite public in the south was rallying to their side to launch a wider popular uprising.

But the week's fighting showed a strength that few expected from the al-Mahdi Army, and moderate Shiite clerics and leaders have not raised their voices strongly against the uprising.

And there were signs of sympathy for the Sadr revolt by Sunni insurgents, who have been fighting the U.S.-led occupation for months and have often chided their Shiite countrymen for not joining in.

Portraits of al-Sadr and graffiti praising his "valiant uprising" appeared on mosque and government building walls in the Sunni city of Ramadi. Peaceful protests in support of al-Sadr occurred in the northern cities of Mosul and Rashad.

Monday night in Baghdad, al-Sadr gunmen went to a mainly Sunni neighborhood to join with insurgents there in firing on U.S. Humvees - the only known instance so far of Sunni and Shiite militants joining forces.

Anger was also spreading over the three-day U.S. siege of Fallujah, one of the Sunni insurgents' strongest bastions, west of Baghdad. Iraqis protesting the operation clashed with U.S. troops outside the northern city of Kirkuk in fighting that left eight Iraqis dead and 10 wounded.

The 12 Marines were killed Tuesday in Ramadi, where Maj. Gen. James Mattis, 1st Marine Division commander, said his forces still were fighting insurgents that included Syrian mercenaries along a one-mile front.

In Fallujah, dozens of insurgents carrying RPGs and automatic weapons, their faces wrapped in scarves, dug in around an eastern entrance to the city, setting up sandbags, with Marines only a few hundred yards away outside the city. Three Marines have been killed there since Monday, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Marines making incursions toward the city center battled gunmen in the streets. Mosque loudspeakers blared calls for jihad, or holy war, and women were seen carrying guns in the streets.

Sixteen children and eight women were reported killed when warplanes struck four houses late Tuesday, said Hatem Samir, a Fallujah Hospital official.

The fighting began at the start of the week when the Marines surrounded Fallujah.

On Tuesday, however, insurgents opened a new front with the bloody attack in Ramadi. Gunmen hiding in Ramadi's main cemetery opened fire on U.S. patrols, sparking a gunbattle in alleys near the governor's palace, witnesses said, adding that at least two Iraqis were killed.

Kimmitt called for the surrender of al-Sadr, who is named in an arrest warrant for involvement in the murder of a rival Shiite cleric almost a year ago.

There was no sign, however, that al-Sadr's forces had eased their attacks:

- Militiamen battled Spanish soldiers in Najaf, south of Baghdad. An Iraqi taxi driver was killed in the crossfire, a hospital official said.

- Clashes erupted overnight in Baghdad's Sadr City, killing four Iraqis and wounding seven others, doctors said.

- Militiamen traded fire with Polish troops in Karbala overnight, killing two Iranian tourists, witnesses said.

- Gunmen attacked a police car Tuesday night in Youssifiya, south of Baghdad, killing two policemen.

With confirmation of the latest Marine deaths, the American death toll since the war was at least 628.

--


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alsadr; enemy; fallujah; hellfiremissiles; insurgents; iraq; killed; marines; muslims; ramadi; religionofpeace; vigilantresolve
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To: jimbo123
It's way past time we started bombing mosques and targeting their places of worship - I'm sick and tired of people protecting their "religious sites" when THAT is where they are firing at our people FROM!
21 posted on 04/07/2004 12:06:20 PM PDT by princess leah
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I guess we can now say the gorilla warfare Bush warned us about at the start is now going to happen, only the insurgents are not with Hussein. I believe we should have gone after these people like this from the start.
22 posted on 04/07/2004 12:06:34 PM PDT by ChevyZ28 (Most of us would rather be ruined by praise, than saved by criticism.)
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To: KellyAdmirer
You can't say because one small group of Iraqis is doing something then all of them are doing the same thing.

There's some sick freaks in the US - just turn on the TV- we certainly take those freaks as a symbol of the US.

Open your eyes, not everything is so black and white.

23 posted on 04/07/2004 12:06:50 PM PDT by freedom44
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
"ONLY" 40 dead?? Damn!! Sure wish it could have been MORE!!

And, while all this is going on, John Flippin Kerry called "Al-Sadr" a "legitimate" voice. He was also "dismayed" that Al-Sadr had his newspaper shut down by coalition forces. Kerry doesn't have a clue, does he??
24 posted on 04/07/2004 12:07:16 PM PDT by GeorgeW23225 (Liberals really aren't bad people. It's just that they know so much that simply ISN'T true!!)
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Comment #25 Removed by Moderator

To: Eurotwit
They have updated their report with some info on another Mosque:

______________________________________________________________________

Today: April 07, 2004 at 11:56:03 PDT

U.S. Hits Mosque Compound; 40 Said Killed

By BASSEM MROUE and ABDUL-QADER SAADI
ASSOCIATED PRESS

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -

U.S. Marines in the third day of a battle to pacify this Sunni Muslim city fired a rocket and dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb on a mosque compound Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to key cities in Iraq.

The fighting in Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi - just east of Baghdad - has killed 15 Marines since Monday and was part of an intensified uprising involving other Sunni towns in northern and central Iraq, and Shiite population centers south of the capital.

Marines waged a six-hour battle around the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque with militants holed up inside before a Cobra helicopter fired a Hellfire missile at the base of its minaret and an F-16 dropped the bomb, said Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne.

The fight began when a Marine vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from the mosque, wounding five Marines, and a large U.S. force converged on it, Byrne said.

Witnesses said the strike came as worshippers had gathered for afternoon prayers.

An Associated Press reporter saw cars ferrying out dead and wounded. Witnesses said part of a wall surrounding the mosque compound was destroyed but the main building was not damaged.

In Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told CNN that from photos of the mosque he had seen, "the actual mosque structure itself" was not damaged.

Its minaret was damaged, but still standing, an AP reporter said.

"It is a holy place, there is no doubt about it," Kimmitt added. "It has a special status under the Geneva Convention that it can't be attacked.

"However, it can be attacked when there is a military necessity brought on by the fact that the enemy is storing weapons, using weapons, inciting violence and executing violence from its grounds," he said.

Because casualties were rushed to makeshift clinics in private homes and mosques, the number of dead and wounded was unclear.

During fighting elsewhere in Fallujah, U.S. forces seized another mosque, the al-Muadidi mosque, and a Marine climbed its minaret and fired down on gunmen, witnesses said. Insurgents hit the minaret with rocket-propelled grenades, causing it to partly collapse, the AP reporter said.

Insurgents also blew up two highway overpasses into the city to prevent U.S. troops from using them. A helicopter rocketed three houses, and the reporter saw at least five wounded people, including a young boy, being pulled out of one them.

Byrne said the Marines controlled about a quarter of Fallujah.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said U.S. forces launched the operation in Fallujah to capture insurgents involved in attacks on Americans, including the ones who mutilated and burned the bodies of four U.S. civilians ambushed last week. He said the troops had pictures and names of those involved and were not attacking the town as a whole.

But militants, who have wide popular support, dug in and fiercely resisted the U.S. raids into the city center and attacked American troops encircling the city of 200,000. The intensity of the resistance apparently prompted U.S. forces to bring in heavy weapons such as helicopters, tanks and AC130 gunships that have pounded suspected militant sites in the densely populated neighborhoods.

Since Sunday, 34 Americans, two other coalition soldiers and more than 190 Iraqis had been killed in fighting across the country. The Iraqi figure did not include those killed at the mosque.

Kimmitt vowed to "destroy" the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which has been behind the wave of attacks and street fighting with coalition troops in southern cities and Baghdad this week.

Al-Sadr said Iraq will become "another Vietnam" for the United States unless it transfers power to Iraqis who are not connected with the U.S.-led occupation authority.

"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army, to help them in the transfer of power to honest Iraqis," al-Sadr said in a statement from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."

Al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army launched heavy gunbattles with coalition forces in the streets of three southern cities Wednesday and, for the first time, in the north. Al-Sadr fighters battled American troops in the town of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, hitting a U.S. helicopter with small arms fire. The OH-58 Kiowa chopper was damaged and forced to land, but the two crewmembers were unharmed.

And Shiite gunmen drove Ukrainian forces out of the southern city of Kut - raising concerns over the ability of U.S. allies to control al-Sadr's uprising.

After gunbattles overnight killed 12 Iraqis, the Ukrainians withdrew from Kut, and al-Sadr followers swept into their base, seized weapons stores and planted their flag on a nearby grain silo.

The black-garbed gunmen of the al-Mahdi Army also had virtual control of Kufa and Karbala, where Iraqi police lay low, allowing militiamen to move freely and acting only to prevent looting. Militiamen in Karbala clashed with Polish patrols that moved through their areas, and a cleric who was a senior official in al-Sadr's office in the city was killed.

Al-Sadr and his militia are unpopular among most of Iraq's Shiite majority, and there was no sign that the Shiite public in the south was rallying to their side to launch a wider popular uprising.

But the week's fighting showed a strength that few expected from the al-Mahdi Army, and moderate Shiite clerics and leaders have not raised their voices strongly against the uprising.

There were signs of sympathy for the Sadr revolt by Sunni insurgents, who have been fighting the U.S.-led occupation for months and have often chided their Shiite countrymen for not joining in.

Portraits of al-Sadr and graffiti praising his "valiant uprising" appeared on mosque and government building walls in the Sunni city of Ramadi. Peaceful protests in support of al-Sadr occurred in the northern cities of Mosul and Rashad.

Monday night in Baghdad, al-Sadr gunmen went to a mainly Sunni neighborhood to join with insurgents there in firing on U.S. Humvees - the only known instance so far of Sunni and Shiite militants joining forces.

The military also announced the deaths of two U.S. soldiers - one killed in the Sunni Triangle city of Balad, north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, the other on Wednesday in an RPG attack on his convoy in the capital.

Anger was also spreading over the three-day U.S. siege of Fallujah, one of the Sunni insurgents' strongest bastions, west of Baghdad. Iraqis protesting the operation clashed with U.S. troops outside the northern city of Kirkuk in fighting that left eight Iraqis dead and 10 wounded.

The 12 Marines were killed Tuesday in Ramadi, where Maj. Gen. James Mattis, 1st Marine Division commander, said his forces still were fighting insurgents that included Syrian mercenaries along a one-mile front.

In Fallujah, dozens of insurgents carrying RPGs and automatic weapons, their faces wrapped in scarves, dug in around an eastern entrance to the city, setting up sandbags. Three Marines have been killed there since Monday, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Mosque loudspeakers blared calls for jihad, or holy war, and women were seen carrying guns in the streets.

Sixteen children and eight women were reported killed when warplanes struck four houses late Tuesday, said Hatem Samir, a Fallujah Hospital official.

On Tuesday, insurgents opened a new front with the bloody attack in Ramadi. Gunmen hiding in Ramadi's main cemetery opened fire on U.S. patrols, sparking a gunbattle, witnesses said, adding that at least two Iraqis were killed.

Kimmitt called for the surrender of al-Sadr, who is named in an arrest warrant for involvement in the murder of a rival Shiite cleric almost a year ago.

There was no sign, however, that al-Sadr's forces had eased their attacks:

- Militiamen battled Spanish soldiers in Najaf, and a taxi driver was killed in the crossfire, a hospital official said.

- Clashes erupted overnight in Baghdad's Sadr City, killing four Iraqis and wounding seven others, doctors said.

- Militiamen traded fire with Polish troops in Karbala overnight, killing two Iranian tourists, witnesses said.

- Gunmen attacked a police car Tuesday night in Youssifiya, south of Baghdad, killing two policemen.

With confirmation of the latest deaths, the American death toll since the war was at least 630.

--



26 posted on 04/07/2004 12:07:30 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
U.S. Marines in the third day of a battle to pacify this Sunni Muslim city fired a rocket and dropped a 500-pound, laser-guided bomb on a mosque bunker compound Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shiite-inspired violence spread to key cities in Iraq.
27 posted on 04/07/2004 12:07:40 PM PDT by atomicpossum (Hobbits offer only Tolkien resistance.)
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To: All
Iranian Tourists ....not likely!!!!
28 posted on 04/07/2004 12:08:11 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: LoudRepublicangirl
Thanks for the headsup!
29 posted on 04/07/2004 12:09:29 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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Comment #30 Removed by Moderator

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Along with being fair and balanced I try to be first,fast and accurate.
31 posted on 04/07/2004 12:10:36 PM PDT by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
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To: freedom44
Open your eyes, not everything is so black and white.

My eyes are wide open, thanks. If you want to believe Iraqi propaganda, feel free. I'll stay in the real world.

32 posted on 04/07/2004 12:10:56 PM PDT by KellyAdmirer
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To: samtheman
ROFL!
33 posted on 04/07/2004 12:17:25 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: LoudRepublicangirl
"I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army, to help them in the transfer of power to honest Iraqis," al-Sadr said in a statement issued from his office in the southern city of Najaf. "Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers."

Hey! How did Teddy Kennedy get over to Iraq so fast? Or is it Robert Byrd? Sounds exactly like them! Demodog talking points issuing from Iraq? What gives here?

34 posted on 04/07/2004 12:18:58 PM PDT by AFPhys (My Passion review: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1089021/posts?page=13#13)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Death to all Terrorists ~ Bump!

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

35 posted on 04/07/2004 12:26:34 PM PDT by blackie (Be Well~Be Armed~Be Safe~Molon Labe!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks for the info...

"However, it can be attacked when there is a military necessity brought on by the fact that the enemy is storing weapons, using weapons, inciting violence and executing violence from its grounds," he said."

If that's the case, I think a LOT of mosques are in danger.

36 posted on 04/07/2004 12:28:20 PM PDT by Eurotwit
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To: vienax
"the US is in deep shit and sinking deeper every hour; yes, the US army willput this uprising down, militarily; so what? after it iraq will be even less stable; more young muslim's will have more reasons to hate the US; the US is actively breeding terrorists; more marines will die, many more, and the US is not going to gain anything from it;

what a waste of money and lifes "

Do you actually believe the stuff you write? They are getting fed their hate from the "clerics" who indoctrinate these young muslims in their "indoctrination centers", commonly called Mosques, where they also store weapons for use in these acts of hate and from which they fire these same weapons in their acts of hate. They hate America for a lot of reasons - I don't know why. It is their choice to hate or not to hate - it is also their choice to act on their hate or not. However, if they choose to hate and to act on that hate, the job of the USMC (and other branches) is to protect you and I from these acts of hate. These same hatefilled young men destroyed Americans a few years ago in my country because we gave them the benefit of the doubt and allowed ourselves to be vulnerable to them. Now we have taken the fight to their land. If not, they will come here again and again until this land is their land and we all can go to the Mosque of our choosing.
I don't particularly relish the idea of being forced to go to a Mosque 6 times a day, do you? If your answer is negative, then I hardly think the soldiers spilling their life's blood on Iraqi soil is a waste and shame on you for saying that it is.
37 posted on 04/07/2004 12:31:42 PM PDT by 1forall (America - my home, my land, my country.)
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To: samtheman
Do they still get their virgins?
38 posted on 04/07/2004 12:34:10 PM PDT by Pentagram
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To: AFPhys
Once again, those who think we will get freaked out by stating this is another Vietnam. Vietnam was Vietnam, fought by different men for different reasons. It's time we lay that war and it's memories aside for good. As for Teddy Kennedy he should know a lot about Vietnam since his brother was the one who ordered troops into southeast Asia in the first place.
39 posted on 04/07/2004 12:42:11 PM PDT by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
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To: LoudRepublicangirl
Those 'Nam folks don't bother me at all.

We lost there because we had a president who didn't have the benefit of hindsight of the 'Nam experience. This one does, and he has the 'nads to carry out what needs to be done. As I said earlier today on a different thread,

Americans learned a valuable lesson in 'Nam... even those who were protesters...

The lesson was "WIN" - Do what it takes to win - or don't do it at all.

We're doing it, and we have a president who understands what it takes to allow the military to win.

The public will support his approach overwhelmingly.

As was said by several in different ways, any chance that this analogy gets traction the libs would like is simply a wet dream they're having. They'll wake up in a week or a month or so... And they'll want to go asleep again for four years when they find out what happens to them in November...

40 posted on 04/07/2004 12:52:50 PM PDT by AFPhys (My Passion review: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1089021/posts?page=13#13)
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