NPR reporting a 4 day running gun battle in Fallujah.
1 Marine Lost.............
Something is going on. Since the "coalition" is keeping reporters away, although I've seen a number of reports, I don't believe I have the "straight skinny". A picture
graphics7.nytimes.com
to go with
Up to 16 Die in Gun Battles in Sunni Areas of Iraq
By DEXTER FILKINS
ALLUJA, Iraq, March 26 — As many as 16 people, including an United States marine, were killed in a series of gun battles on Friday, as guerrilla violence swept the Sunni-dominated areas north and west of Baghdad in the latest show of strength by the insurgency here.
Among the Iraqis killed was a cameraman for ABC News, who a witness said was shot by American troops when he stepped into the middle of a skirmish.
The attackers showed sophistication and ease of movement, despite the assertions of American officers that they are close to defeating the insurgency led by members of Saddam Hussein's fallen government and are dealing with a smaller number of foreign-led Islamic terrorists.
American officials in Falluja provided no information on the ABC cameraman or any other Iraqi casualties. A military spokesman said one marine had been killed and several others wounded.
The gun battle came after a week of steadily intensifying violence that has left at least three other marines dead and four wounded.
The fighting broke out when more than 300 marines entered a neighborhood on foot and were fired on by Iraqis.
[In a statement released early Saturday, the Marine Corps said it was carrying out "offensive operations in Falluja in order to foster a secure and stable environment for the people" of Al Anbar Province. The statement offered no details about casualties but indicated that marines were moving swiftly to crush the insurgents.]
In Tikrit, seven other Iraqis — three suspected insurgents and four Iraqi paramilitary troops — were killed during a large-scale attack on a suspected guerrilla hideout, officials said. They said the troops had captured 21 suspected guerrillas in that raid.
Falluja, long the epicenter of anti-American resistance, remains far from being under control. It seemed clear that the insurgents were popular enough to hide among the civilians with little fear of exposure.
"The insurgents had the Americans surrounded, and they had the advantage, because they knew the neighborhood and the Americans did not," said Omar Ali, an Iraqi cameraman for the APTN television network, who was standing next to the ABC cameraman when he was killed. "When the Americans called for the reinforcements, the insurgents withdrew."
The fighting followed a shift from the approach of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, whose troops had largely pulled out of the city and turned it over to the Iraqi police and paramilitary forces. In the last several months, American soldiers maintained no permanent posts here and ventured into the urban center only on patrols.
Since marines took over here this month, they have sent platoons of troops into the heart of the city. The fighting gradually intensified, with the guerrillas' attacks marked by varied tactics and firepower.
On Thursday, a convoy of marines moving through Falluja was hit by a homemade bomb and then attacked by insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles. One marine was killed, and two were wounded.
American commanders on Friday sent more than 300 marines on foot into the streets of the Askari neighborhood, near the scene of Thursday's attack. Marines closed the main highway connecting Falluja to Baghdad, 35 miles to east, and sealed off the neighborhood with tanks and armored cars.
"When the Americans came into the neighborhood, the guerrillas attacked them with mortars and R.P.G.'s," said Qasim Ubaid, an electrician who lives in the neighborhood. "The Americans were surrounded."
Mr. Ali, the APTN cameraman, said he and Bourhan Mohammed, the cameraman for ABC, were hiding behind a house when the guerrillas fired off a volley of rocket-propelled grenades.
"When he stuck his head out to check the Americans' reaction, he was hit by a bullet in the head," Mr. Ali said of the cameraman. "It came from where the Americans were."
Staff members at ABC's bureau in Baghdad confirmed Mr. Mohammed's death.
Lt. Ross Schellhaas, of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, said that his men had encountered sporadic attacks through much of the day but that the guerrillas had been easily dispersed.
He said his deeper concern was the attitude of the Iraqis civilians, in whom he sensed ambivalence about the American presence.
"Every one of us is waving to the Iraqis, even the guys who got shot at," the lieutenant said as his men moved through the neighborhood. "We're trying to let them know that we are here to help them."
"I don't know if they believe it or not," he said.
The renewed fighting seemed to generate anti-American antipathy here. At Falluja's main hospital, where the dead and wounded were taken, a group of angry Iraqis waved away an American reporter who tried to go inside.
"If you go inside, you'll be shot," said Abdul Nasir, a security guard. "I can't protect you. The families are crazy, and they are armed."
In a steady drumbeat of recent statements, American commanders and members of the civilian authority here have painted an optimistic picture of the security situation, saying that after the capture of Mr. Hussein, they cracked many of the guerrilla cells that had been attacking American soldiers. With the demise of insurgents once loyal to Mr. Hussein, they said, most of the violence is generated by foreign-led Islamist fighters.
The American argument suggested that the insurgency, never very popular among ordinary Iraqis, was now smaller than ever. There was a drop in the number of attacks against Americans evident in recent months, and that seemed to justify reducing American troops, as well as the replacement of many of the active-duty troops with reservists.
The American claims seemed to be buttressed by the discovery in January of a letter, reportedly written by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, taking responsibility for many of the deadly suicide attacks. The writer of the letter said the Islamic guerrillas had encountered great difficulties in cultivating popular support among the Iraqi people.
But part of the reason for the drop in attacks was that American soldiers had stopped patrolling large swaths of Iraqi cities like Baghdad and Falluja. On the rare occasions that they returned to those areas, they were often greeted with enmity and gunfire.
While the Americans asserted that foreigners like Mr. Zarqawi had taken over the insurgency, they were rarely able to cite examples of foreign involvement in terrorist attacks. When pressed, American officials conceded that of the 8,500 suspected guerrillas and criminals they had detained, only about 150 — less than 2 percent — were from outside Iraq.
Meanwhile, in the Askari neighborhood of Falluja, the marines' prospects seemed mixed. Mr. Ubaid, the electrician, said that a slim majority of the locals supported the Americans, but that they were too afraid to say so, fearing that the insurgents would kill them.
"Most of the people here, they support the Americans," he said.
Yet even Mr. Ubaid, telling his story in English, grew nervous.
A man from the crowd that had gathered round him said, "Come on, speak in Arabic so we can understand you."
"No," Mr. Ubaid said, "I prefer to speak in English. It's safer."
nytimes.com
Not to nit pick, but "an United States marine" is not the way I learned my grammar. Guess I wouldn't "fit in" at the NYT.
lurqer |
