Massive US force closes in on radical cleric's town
NAJAF, Iraq — A 2,500-strong U.S. force, backed by tanks and artillery, pushed to the outskirts of the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Tuesday for a showdown with a radical cleric.
The standoff in the south came as a U.S. military helicopter went down near Fallujah in the west. Three soldiers were wounded and a Marine helping secure the site was killed by mortars, the military said.
Meanwhile, the string of kidnappings that has coincided with violence around Fallujah and in the south this month continued. A French journalist was reported abducted, and four Italians working as private guards were missing and feared kidnapped.
An Associated Press tally shows that 22 were being held hostage, while 35 others had been taken hostage and released.
However, Dan Senor, the spokesman for the U.S.-led administration, said Tuesday that about 40 foreign hostages from 12 countries were being held by Iraqi insurgents, and that the FBI is investigating the abductions. Among those held are three Japanese and truck driver Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., whose captors had threatened to kill them.
Senor said the administration would not negotiate with “terrorists or kidnappers” to gain the hostages’ release. He would not comment on efforts to free the captives.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said he has asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to adjust the U.S. troop rotation into and out of Iraq this spring so that U.S. commanders can have the use of perhaps 10,000 more soldiers than they otherwise would have.
On the way to Najaf, the U.S. force’s 80-vehicle convoy was ambushed Monday night by gunmen firing small arms and setting off roadside bombs north of the city. One soldier was killed and an American civilian contractor was wounded, officers in the convoy said.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said their mission was to “capture or kill” radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
American units set up a cordon on approaches to the city, barring militiamen from leaving.
Some 2,500 U.S. troops were massed outside of the city and commanders met Tuesday to review battle plans.
“We have consolidated north of Najaf and are preparing for combat operations,” said Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste, commander of the 1st Infantry Division.
Clashes took place Tuesday when a U.S. unit on the edges of the city pursued armed supporters of al-Sadr into Najaf and killed several militiamen, Batiste said. “Treat the people of Najaf with dignity and respect,” Batiste said. “Only bite off the head of the poised rattlesnake.” Iraqi leaders launched hurried negotiations aimed at averting a U.S. assault on the city, site of the holiest Shiite site, the Imam Ali Shrine. Al-Sadr was photographed by Associated Press Television News leaving the shrine Tuesday.
The sons of Iraq’s three grand ayatollahs — including the most powerful one, Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani — met al-Sadr Monday night in his Najaf office and assured him of their opposition to any U.S. strike.
“They agreed not to allow any hostile act against Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr and the city of Najaf,” said a person at the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The delegation also was reportedly trying to work out a compromise to prevent a U.S. attack.
Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, the commander of the force, said his troops were aware that a “single shot in Najaf” by U.S. soldiers could outrage Iraq’s powerful Shiite majority.
“Look at this as the Shiite Vatican,” Pittard said before the deployment.
The grand ayatollahs — older, moderate leaders with immense influence among Shiites — have long kept the young, fiercely anti-American al-Sadr at arm’s length. The dispatch of the delegation reflected the eagerness to avoid bloodshed in Najaf and the new influence that the uprising by the al-Mahdi Army’s militia has brought al-Sadr.
In a concession to American demands, al-Sadr ordered his militiamen out of police stations and government buildings in Najaf and the nearby cities of Karbala and Kufa. Police were back in their stations and on patrols, while al-Sadr’s black-garbed gunmen largely stayed out of sight.
But the militia rebuffed a U.S. demand to disband.
While a cease-fire has kept Fallujah relatively calm for four days, the area between the besieged city and Baghdad has seen heavy clashes by insurgents and U.S. forces. An Apache helicopter was shot down Sunday in nearby Abu Ghraib, killing its two crewmembers.
Tuesday’s helicopter crash happened when the Sikorsky H-53 was hit by ground fire and forced to land, wounding the three soldiers, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of U.S. military operations in Iraq. An insurgent said he hit the chopper with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The team that extracted the crew and secured the craft later came under mortar fire and as it withdrew was ambushed by gunmen using small weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. Another team went in afterward and blew up the craft to prevent it from being looted, Marine Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.
A Marine was killed by mortar fire, Kimmitt said. Marine spokesman 1st. Lt. Eric Knapp said seven Marines were wounded in the area.
Before the crash, a U.S. convoy was attacked near the same site, and two Humvees and a truck were burning, said witnesses, who also reported U.S. casualties.
The U.S. military said about 70 Americans and 700 insurgents had been killed this month, the bloodiest since the fall of Baghdad a year ago with U.S.-led forces fighting on three fronts: against Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, Shiite militiamen in the south and gunmen in Baghdad and on its outskirts.
More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in Fallujah since the siege began on April 5, said the head of the city hospital, Rafie al-Issawi. Most of the dead registered at hospitals and clinics were women, children and elderly, he said.
In all, about 880 Iraqis have been killed in the violence since April 5, according to an AP count based on statements by Iraqi hospital officials, U.S. military statements and Iraqi police.
Along with the violence, the kidnappings have caused fear among foreigners working in Iraq, prompting many to limit their movements.
Eight Ukrainian and Russian employees of a Russian energy company who were kidnaped in Baghdad were freed Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Seven Chinese were freed Monday after being held for a day, China’s official news agency said. Two reportedly were injured.
Two U.S. soldiers and seven employees of a U.S. contractor, including Hamill, were missing after an attack Friday on a convoy west of Baghdad, Sanchez said.
The recent burst of violence has exposed weaknesses in Iraq’s U.S.-trained security forces. A battalion of the Iraqi army refused to fight in Fallujah, Sanchez said. And some police defected to al-Sadr’s forces, Abizaid said.
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