8 More U.S. GIs lost their lives in Iraq today. Bush approval rating stands at 43% according to PEW Research. If the violence in Iraq continues at this rate, 1,000 GIs will have come home in body bags by mid-Summer. :-(
More GIs die; cleric threatens further violence
Battles on two fronts: Fallujah area and with al-Sadr militia
April 6: The U.S. military says confronting radical Shitte cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is its most immediate priority. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Today show
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:42 a.m. ET April 06, 2004BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops battled guerrillas Tuesday on the edge of Fallujah in an operation to crush the insurgency there, as the U.S. military death toll increased and supporters of an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric again rose up in at least four cities, leaving 30 Iraqis and a Ukrainian soldier dead, and at least 18 coalition troops wounded.
The cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, issued a statement saying he had left the mosque in Kufa that he had been holed up in and denouncing President Bush as "the father of evil."
An aide later told reporters that al-Sadr had moved to nearby Najaf and that the uprising by supporters would continue until occupying troops are withdrawn from populated areas and prisoners are released.
The confrontation with al-Sadr — whose militia waged fierce battles with coalition troops on Sunday — and the offensive against Fallujah appeared to be a tougher approach by U.S. forces ahead of a planned June 30 handover of power to an Iraqi government.
New U.S. deaths
In Fallujah, U.S. troops battled guerrillas Tuesday on the edges of the city, which hundreds of Marines and Iraqi troops have surrounded. The military reported four Marines killed in the area.
The Americans were killed by hostile fire Monday, bringing to five the number of Marines killed that day. The military did not give details on the deaths, saying only that they took place in Anbar province, where Fallujah is located.
In northern Baghdad’s Khazimiya district, three U.S. soldiers were killed, all members of the 1st Armored Division.
One was killed Monday when his convoy was attacked with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire. A second soldier died later the same day when his vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. The third died after his Bradley vehicle was hit by a grenade Tuesday. Their names were not released.
The deaths in the past two days brought to at least 614 the number of Americans killed in Iraq since the war began.
A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all American officials in Iraq, including those working for the Coalition Provisional Authority, had been told to remain inside their compounds since Monday because of security worries.
About 500 Japanese soldiers stationed in Samawah, in the far south, have been ordered to halt work on repairing roads and other humanitarian activities outside the safety of their camp until after festivities for the Shiite holy day of Arbaeen on April 11, Kyodo News reported.
Fallujah scene
In Fallujah, U.S. and Iraqi troops have sealed off the city for more than 36 hours, blocking roads and digging trenches in preparation to move in to root out insurgents after the slaying and mutilation last week of four American civilians.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said some insurgents had been killed and others captured as troops search house to house. "They have been conducting raids in the city against high-value targets,” Rumsfeld told reporters in Norfolk, Va., on Tuesday.
“They have captured a number of people," he said. "A number of people have resisted and been have killed. It will be a methodical effort to find the individuals who were involved.”
Explosions and gunfire were heard from the city through the night Monday and into Tuesday morning, apparently U.S. troops shelling targets and clashing with guerrillas as Marines probed the outskirts with reconnaissance patrols.
But the bulk of the force remained on Fallujah’s edges Tuesday, and there was no word whether troops had carried out raids against what officials have said is a list of suspected insurgents being targeted.
A force of Marines pushed into an industrial zone in the eastern part of the city, clashing with guerrillas. Gunmen carrying automatic weapons were seen in the streets. The military reported six Iraqis killed in fighting Monday, saying they were all guerrillas, though residents said five of them were killed when helicopters hit a residential area.
In the nearby city of Ramadi, another hotbed of guerrilla activity 24 miles west of Fallujah, U.S. troops and insurgents clashed on a downtown street. One Iraqi was killed and three wounded, doctors said.
Second front against al-Sadr
The offensive against Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, comes as the United States is taking a tougher approach against al-Sadr, who has long spoken out against the U.S. occupation and has built up his own militia, the Al-Mahdi Army — though he has not called for anti-U.S. violence in the past.
Al-Sadr supporters clashed Tuesday with Italian soldiers in Nassiriyah, where 15 Iraqis were killed and 35 wounded, an Italian news agency reported. A dozen Italian soldiers reportedly were wounded.
Clashes with Shiite militiamen were also reported in the southern towns of Amarah, where British troops are responsible for security, and in Kut, where one Ukrainian soldier was killed and six were wounded. Ukraine has about 1,650 troops in Iraq, the third-largest contingent among countries that did not take part in last year’s major combat operations.
In Amarah, fighting overnight killed 15 Iraqis and wounded eight, a coalition spokesman said.
A local government official said two militiamen were wounded by Polish soldiers in battles south of Karbala.
U.S. administrators on Monday declared al-Sadr an “outlaw” and announced a warrant for his arrest, suggesting they would move to arrest him soon.
Al-Sadr launched a wave of protests over the arrest of a top aide last week, sparking gunbattles Sunday between his militiamen and coalition troops in Baghdad and near Najaf that killed at least 52 Iraqis and nine coalition troops, including eight Americans.
The showdown with al-Sadr threatens to heighten tensions between the U.S. occupation and Iraq’s Shiite majority, who have largely avoided anti-U.S. violence — though al-Sadr’s popularity among Shiites is limited. U.S. officials appear to be counting on Shiites to shun al-Sadr, seen by many in his community as too young and fiery to lead.
In Najaf — Shiism’s holiest city — fresh graffiti on walls praised al-Sadr, reading, “Yes to armed resistance, yes to the al-Sadr revolution” and “No, no to the Americans.” |
