Arab volunteers resist US troops in Baghdad
Twenty-one Iraqis were killed and one United States Marine was shot dead in separate firefights in Baghdad, only a day after invading US-led forces occupied the centre of the capital. Large numbers of non-Iraqi Arab fighters took to the streets resisting the US forces in several areas.
The volunteer fighters were in control of several Baghdad streets in the Adhamiya district, where a mosque is located, and also in the nearby Waziriya district. Fighters said to be non-Iraqi Arabs were manning checkpoints and patrolling the area. They were also out in force on the streets of the Mansur district west of the Tigris river, close to the Iraqi intelligence service headquarters.
After a short fight northeast of Baghdad, a man is questioned by a US soldier
US planes swooped overhead, hitting targets in areas under Arab control. But the invading troops were nowhere to be seen in Mansur. There was also no sign of Iraqi forces. Abandoned Iraqi artillery pieces and missile launchers littered the streets.
Arab fighters appeared to be putting up the main resistance to the 15,000 US troops in the city. Thousands of volunteers from across the Muslim world are reported to be in Iraq. Ahead of the war, an audio tape from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden exhorted Muslims to fight US forces.
In southwest Baghdad, after a heavy bout of fighting, the bodies of at least 21 Iraqis were found. The victims seemed a mix of soldiers and civilians. Eyewitnesses said the deaths were a direct result of the fighting, and that US soldiers had removed many more bodies.
Meanwhile at a Baghdad mosque where President Saddam Hussein and other senior leaders were thought to have taken shelter, the invading forces fought a fierce four-hour battle. Simultaneously, on Thursday, US warplanes attacked areas of the city still under the control of Iraqi and Arab fighters.
US military officials said one US Marine was killed and more than 20 wounded in the fighting near the Imam al-Adham Mosque north of the city centre and near a presidential palace.
"We had information that a group of regime leadership was attempting to organise 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 US Central Command war headquarters in Qatar.
US military officials in Baghdad, reacting to the fighting around the mosque said they could not confirm whether Saddam Hussein had been in the area but that the Marines were aiming at targets of "significant military value". "The mission was successful," they said, adding that fighting lasted more than four hours, with Marines coming under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 assault rifles.
The fighting was over but the Marines were "still clearing the mess up,” they said.
In the northeast, US troops swept through the Saddam City district in the early hours of Thursday, blasting resistance forces with heavy artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire.
Planes buzzed the area in support of the US units and soldiers reported seeing Iraqi anti-aircraft fire arching up into the night sky against the noisy but invisible aircraft. ---Al Jazeera with agencies |
