U.S. Soldier Killed Guarding Baghdad Bank
By PAUL HAVEN
.c The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. soldier was fatally shot guarding a bank in the capital Saturday, while the U.S. military concluded two separate sweeps in and around Baghdad - arresting more than 1,200 people and seizing weapons, explosives and ammunition, the military said.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, about 1,000 demonstrators protested the detention of a Shiite cleric and head of a local cultural center by U.S.-led forces one week ago.
Mehdi Abdul Mehdi, head of the al-Naba Cultural Center and publisher of the weekly newspaper al-Naba, was arrested by U.S. soldiers at his office July 12 for allegedly trying to organize an anti-American political party, said protesters, who said they did not know where Mehdi was being held.
The military said it was checking the arrest claim and did not know about the Saturday demonstration, which took place along the busy road near the Palestine and Sheraton hotels that house many foreign journalists stay.
``They arrested one of our great media leaders,'' said Sheikh Jabour al-Mamour, a Baghdad cleric.
The U.S. soldier's death Saturday came a day after two separate attacks on convoys in which one soldier was killed. It brought to 149 the number of U.S. personnel killed in combat since the March 20 start of the war - two more than the 1991 Gulf War total for U.S. deaths in combat.
The soldier guarding the Baghdad bank died at about 2 a.m. outside the Al-Rasheed Bank in western Baghdad, Corp. Todd Pruden said.
Pruden also announced that a U.S. serviceman was injured Friday when the convoy he was in was attacked north of Baghdad with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. Three vehicles in the convoy were damaged in the attack in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northwest of the capital, Pruden said.
In another convoy attack Friday, a U.S. soldier was killed when a bomb was detonated by remote control at a traffic circle near the main bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad.
On the northern outskirts of Baghdad, a gasoline tanker arriving from Turkey was hit by a Molotov cocktail thrown from a passing car. The Turkish driver, Amin Abdul-Rahman, 28, jumped from his truck when the engine caught fire and was unharmed.
The burning gasoline in the tanker sent up a billowing cloud of smoke that could be seen all over the city. American troops temporarily sealed the area. Baghdad police Lt. Wessam Abdul-Hussein, who rushed to the scene, said no one was hurt in the attack and the attackers fled in an old Volkswagen.
The military also announced it had wrapped up two sweeps - dubbed Operation Ivy Serpent and Operation Soda Mountain earlier in the week. Some 1,210 people were detained in the two operations, including 112 people suspected of close ties to the former Saddam Hussein regime.
The operations, which both ended Thursday, netted some 6,000 mortar rounds, more than 1,400 rocket propelled grenades, explosives, AK-47 assault rifles and other weapons. None of those captured, however, were among those still at large from a list of 55 most wanted Iraqis from the former regime.
U.S. authorities have captured 34 people on the list, but not Saddam or his two sons.
A U.S. intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity said Friday that a new audio recording purportedly by Saddam urging Iraqis to continue a ``holy war'' against U.S. forces is probably authentic and recent - further evidence Saddam survived the war. The message was aired Thursday, the 35th anniversary of the coup that brought Saddam's Baath Party to power.
Violence against U.S. troops has been concentrated in Iraq's ``Sunni Triangle,'' stretching north and west from Baghdad.
At a major Sunni mosque in Baghdad, formerly known as the Mother of all Battles Mosque, preacher Khalid al-Dari called Friday for the Americans to leave Iraq and said the new U.S.-appointed government ``will enshrine Iraq's sectarian differences.''
Iraq's minority Sunni Muslims have long ruled the country, and many of them fear Saddam's ouster will swing the balance of power to majority Shiites. The new 25-member ruling council, appointed by the Americans, has a slim Shiite majority.
But imams at some Shiite mosques also had harsh words for the Americans.
Muqtada al-Sadr, addressing thousands of Shiites at a mosque in the central holy city of Kufa, vowed to establish a council ``of the righteous'' that would rival the new government.
Al-Sadr said the government is comprised of ``nonbelievers'' who don't represent the people.
``We will not cooperate with the council,'' he told the crowd. ``We will form our own council. Iraq will then have two councils: one of the wrongdoers and one of the righteous.''
``Zionists!'' the crowd chanted. ``Zionist council!''
In an interview later with The Associated Press, al-Sadr said he would launch a parallel government and draft a constitution in consultation with all the country's Islamic movements.
``Eventually, we'll have a referendum separate from the Americans and, God willing, elections separate from the Americans,'' he said.
07/19/03 12:59 EDT
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. |
