NEWS:4 GIs killed in Iraq, including 3 in firefight; Bush says: "Bring'em on!"
[ed: Bush is the most disgusting anti-American murdering killer of our American boys EVER! Impeach that lying POS NOW!]
azcentral.com
Associated Press
Oct. 17, 2003 07:15 AM
KARBALA, Iraq - A joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol enforcing a curfew clashed with gunmen guarding the headquarters of a Shiite cleric, setting off a firefight that killed three Americans and 10 Iraqis, including two security officers, the U.S. Central Command and witnesses said.
In Baghdad, another soldier from the 220th Military Police Brigade was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded Friday morning. No further details were released.
The Americans involved in the firefight at the cleric's headquarters in this southern city were members of the 101st Airborne Division, said Maj. Mike Escudie of Central Command in Tampa, Fla. Central Command said seven Americans were wounded in the clash.
The deaths bring to 101 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1.
Five Iraqi security personnel also were wounded in the attack near Imam Abbas Mosque in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad.
Gunfire erupted again Friday morning in the same area of Karbala, where Thursday's late-night encounter may have signaled a new determination by the Americans to disarm religious-based militias and enforce curfews.
An armored personnel carrier of the U.S.-led coalition opened fire Friday morning as screaming men, women and children fled for cover. Shiite gunmen defiantly shouted, "Allahu Akbar!" - "God is great!" The gunfire soon ended, but young Shiites still manned rooftop and street positions with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Thursday night's fighting began when coalition military police and Iraqi authorities investigated reports of armed men congregating on a road near the Imam Abbas mosque after a 9 p.m. curfew, Central Command said. The two sides exchanged small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.
Malik Kazim, a gunman who said he participated in the battle, said the fighting involved armored vehicles and Humvees that passed the offices of a senior Shiite cleric, Mahmoud al-Hassani. The offices were guarded by at least 20 gunmen.
Karbala has been under curfew since Tuesday, and the U.S.-Iraqi patrol ordered the gunmen inside the offices. When they refused, a shootout ensued, Kazim said.
He said intense gunfire lasted about a half-hour as the U.S.-Iraqi patrol tried to "kill our master."
A man identifying himself as Abu Ali, an aide to al-Hassani, said the Americans opened fire "without any provocation or warning." Eight Iraqi guards were killed, he said.
Abu Ali said guards have been posted around al-Hassani's house since late August, when a car bomb in nearby Najaf killed another leading Shiite cleric and more than 80 other people.
Initial reports said the joint patrol was made up of Americans and Poles. But military officials said later no Poles were involved.
On Friday morning, large pools of blood were seen on the street and dozens of bullet holes, some large-caliber, were seen in the walls.
Al-Hassani is one of Karbala's lesser-known ayatollahs - the highest clerical rank in Shiism. Rivalries among Shiite factions have led to sporadic violence recently, as Shiites suppressed under deposed President Saddam Hussein flexes their new political muscle as a majority in Iraq.
In Baghdad's Sadr City district, a stronghold for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, about 6,000 Shiites chanted "No No U.S.A., Yes Yes Muqtada" at Friday prayers.
Hundreds of yards away, U.S. tanks, armored personnel carriers and dozens of soldiers blocked off streets leading to a building housing the Sadr City council.
Al-Sadr is a 30-year-old cleric who has been exhorting followers with fiery anti-American sermons but has stopped short of directly calling for attacks on U.S. military forces. His militia openly defies the U.S.-led administration's bans on private armies and people carrying unlicensed guns.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in comments published Friday that al-Sadr's militia will be disarmed by force if necessary. Zebari's comments were published in the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Al Hayat.
Polish forces lead an international brigade responsible for postwar security in the Karbala area, commanding some 9,500 peacekeepers from 21 nations, including 2,400 Poles. The 31,000-square-mile area was handed over by American forces last month.
On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution aimed at attracting more troops and money to help stabilize Iraq and speed its independence.
In other developments:
• One Humvee in an American convoy was damaged when a mine or homemade bomb exploded Friday near the central city of Fallujah, witnesses reported. There was no confirmation from Central Command. An average of more than 20 attacks a day are being staged against U.S. forces in Iraq.
• A bombing at a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk wounded a policeman, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported. Station chief Lt. Col. Anwar Qader Ahmad said the attackers were Saddam loyalists.
• In Irbil, 200 miles north of Baghdad, police also shot and killed the driver of a car packed with 220 pounds of explosives as he approached the police ministry office, the U.S. military said. |
