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To: maceng2 who wrote (450)	9/30/2003 7:39:45 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1417

US troops battle Iraqi resistance fighters for more than 8 hours channelnewsasia.com US troops backed by attack aircraft, tanks and helicopters battled Iraqi resistance fighters for more than eight hours on Monday near the Sunni Muslim town of Khaldiyah, 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Baghdad, US officials said. American helicopters fired six rockets and sprayed machine-gun fire during the protracted firefight. Advertisement Witnesses said several US soldiers were wounded, and some appeared to have been killed, before the four US tanks, half a dozen humvee vehicles and a troop transport withdrew along a back road under heavy fire. Americans began withdrawing at about 5:30 p.m. from the al-Qurtan neighborhood on the north side of Khaldiyah, scene of several previous firefights between the US military and guerrilla fighters. Angry residents cursed at reporters who entered the fire zone after the battle. It was not clear which American unit engaged in the long battle, but the 82nd Airborne Division controls the region. Heavy gunfire rattled farms north of the where resistance to the US-led occupation is strong. In Baghdad, US military spokesman Lt. Col. George Krivo said the fight started about 9:10 a.m. when a homemade bomb exploded along the road as a US convoy passed, killing one soldier and wounding another. It appeared to be the biggest engagement in the area in months. American M1A2 tanks fired 120-millimeter cannons as helicopters strafed farm houses with 50-millimeter machine gun fire. Two A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft bombed guerrilla positions while F-15 jets streaked across the sky. At midafternoon, six US armored personnel carriers - two of them ambulances - arrived as reinforcements. As the fight continued, eight Humvees carrying US troops also could be seen heading toward the battle. A US armored personnel carrier left the area carrying six blindfolded Iraqi prisoners. In the distance, civilians, including women and children, could be seen fleeing on foot. A US recovery vehicle towed away two Humvees, one of which had a bullet hole in the windshield. An Iraqi man, fleeing on foot with his wife, three other women, a nephew and five children, said at least 10 houses had been destroyed. He refused to give his name. "Is this the freedom that we were promised?" he asked. "I had to get my family out...The helicopters were firing almost nonstop. My 7-year-old is too young to hate but how can he not hate them (the Americans) after this?" This happened a day after four US soldiers were wounded in homemade bomb attacks north and south of the capital. Meanwhile, the US military said one American soldier was killed and one wounded in an attack on Monday on a convoy near Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad. A military spokeswoman said the convoy was attacked about 9:15 am (0515 GMT) by an "improvised explosive device" in the town of Habbaniyah, near where the Americans have a large base. The latest death brought to 85 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since May 1, when Washington declared major combat over. A US military spokesman also said six US soldiers were wounded in Sunday's bomb attack on a convoy in the hotspot town, where anti-US sentiment runs high. Iraqi civilian death toll continued to rise as US forces west of the northern city of Kirkuk killed a 10-year-old child and wounded a 25-year-old man when they opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who pelted them with stones, hospital director Abdullah Jiburi said. The US army did not immediately confirm the report. Witnesses on the scene said the casualties occured when around 500 protestors carrying portraits of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein took to the streets of Hawija and began pelting US soldiers with stones. An Iraqi police officer also said unidentified assailants fired four mortar rounds, without causing any damage, at a US position in the centre of Kirkuk, an Iraqi police station and an army rehabilitation centre.