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US forces retaking Kut
09/04/2004 18:18 - (SA)
Fallujah - US forces on Friday said they had retaken most of an important southern city from a rebellious Shiite militia, and an American-declared halt to fighting in the embattled city of Fallujah was undercut by bursts of gunfire on the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
A mortar round hit a small building on Friday afternoon near central Baghdad's Firdos Square, where one year ago Marines toppled a large statue of Saddam Hussein to signify the fall of his regime. No injuries were reported in the attack, which shook two nearby hotels that are home to many foreigners.
Iraq's top US administrator, Paul Bremer, announced a unilateral pause in the 5-day-old Fallujah operation to allow Sunni clerics and American military leaders an opportunity to talk with anti-coalition insurgents.
It also was designed to allow in humanitarian aid and let beleaguered residents bury their dead. Cars filled with women, children and the elderly streamed out of the city, a bastion of anti-US Sunni guerrillas 55km west of Baghdad.
The violence that has intensified and spread throughout Iraq this week has created a degree of co-operation between anti-American elements in both the Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities, which have been deeply at odds for decades.
US troops drove into Kut before dawn on Friday, pushing out members of the militia headed by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that had seized the southern textile and farming centre this week after Ukrainian troops abandoned the city under heavy attack.
A US helicopter struck al-Sadr's main office in Kut, killing two people, witnesses said. Americans were patrolling the streets during daylight hours.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said he expected the operation to retake Kut from al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia would be finished by Saturday morning.
"We are fairly comfortable that the town of al-Kut is well on its way to coming back under coalition control," he said.
The Kut operation represented a major foray by the American military in a region where US allies have struggled to deal with the uprising. Almost 500 Iraqis killed
The siege on Fallujah, however, brought a condemnation from one of the most pro-American members of the US-picked Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi.
"These operations were a mass punishment for the people of Fallujah," Pachachi told al-Arabiya TV. "It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal."
The heavy fighting for Fallujah was prompted by the March 31 slaying of four US civilians in the city. Their burned bodies were mutilated and dragged through the streets by a mob that hung two of them from a bridge.
A marine died on Thursday in Fallujah, bringing the US death toll across Iraq this week to 40. The fighting also has killed more than 460 Iraqis - including more than 280 in Fallujah, a hospital official said. 90 minute respite
The marines called a halt to offensive operations in Fallujah at noon on Friday. Only 90 minutes later, Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion 5th Marine Regiment, said he had permission to resume offensive operations.
For hours afterward, there was sporadic shooting in the city that for some Iraqis has become a symbol of defiance. Marines were hunkered down around the city and in an industrial zone just inside, without entering residential neighbourhoods. Before the halt was called, there was fighting around a mosque that was the centre of battles for three days.
A year to the day after marines toppled Saddam's statue in Firdos Square, a poster of al-Sadr was attached Friday to an unfinished bronze monument at the site. US soldiers climbed up and tore it down.
The felling of Saddam's statue before a cheering crowd of Iraqis on April 9 was an enduring image of Iraq's liberation.
But on Friday, Baghdad was tense, and a curfew was imposed in Firdos Square, where at least two armoured vehicles were parked. At the western entrance to the capital, gunmen freely roamed the main highway, and a burned tanker truck sent a huge pall of smoke over the city. Straw sounds alarm bells
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that a year ago, he had not imagined Iraq would be in its current state.
"I thought that they would go from some good days and some bad days. There is no doubt that the current situation is very serious and it is the most serious that we have faced," Straw told the BBC.
Al-Sadr forces kept control of Kufa and the centre of the nearby holy city of Najaf, despite a vow by US commanders Wednesday to crush the militia.
Any US operation to oust the militiamen would be hampered by the hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims who are in southern cities and roads this weekend for al-Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of the period of mourning for a 7th-century martyred saint. 'Civil revolt'
Al-Sadr on Friday demanded US forces leave Iraq, saying they now face "a civil revolt."
"I direct my speech to my enemy Bush and I tell him that if your excuse was that you are fighting Saddam, then this thing is a past and now you are fighting the entire Iraqi people," al-Sadr said in a sermon, delivered by one of his deputies at the Imam Ali Shrine, Shiite Islam's holiest site, in Najaf.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed not to withdraw 530 troops in Iraq despite the seizure of three Japanese civilians. Militants have threatened to kill the three unless the troops leave Iraq. A senior aide to al-Sadr denied his militia was responsible for kidnapping the Japanese.
At least three other foreign civilians are being held captive.
Gunmen on the highway outside Baghdad were seen stopping a car carrying two Western civilians - apparently private security guards - since both had sidearms. The gunmen pulled the men from the car, firing at the ground to warn them to obey. Their fate was not known.
US troops also came under heavy attack in Muqdadiyah, 90km northeast of Baghdad. Up to 80 insurgents ambushed a US patrol late Thursday, prompting an overnight battle. At least three insurgents were killed and up to 20 wounded. Falluja
Insurgents armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades have put up stiff resistance in Fallujah, but marines have said they are winning the battle, holding at one point about a quarter of the city.
The security firm that employed the four Americans who were killed in Fallujah, Blackwater USA, told The New York Times that they were lured into an ambush by members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps.
The Iraqis promised the Blackwater-led convoy safe passage, but suddenly blocked off the road instead, preventing any escape from waiting gunmen, Patrick Toohey, Blackwater's vice president for government relations said in Friday's editions.
Two senior Pentagon officials said an inquiry into the slayings was continuing.
In Najaf, a policeman watched helplessly on Thursday as a truck carrying a dozen heavily armed Shiite militiamen went past his police station - already in the militia's hands.
Such action has raised concerns about the performance and loyalty of a police force that US administrators are counting on to keep security in the future Iraq.
Coalition forces also have moved in to block the road between Kufa and Najaf, a senior aide to al-Sadr, Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali, told the AP.
Al-Sadr, a young, firebrand anti-US cleric, is thought to be holed up in his office in Najaf, protected by scores of gunmen. He has said he is willing to die resisting any US attempt to capture him.
Al-Sadr supporters clashed with coalition forces in the southern city of Karbala and in Baqouba, north of Baghdad. At least six Iraqis were killed, officials said.
Edited by Elmarie Jack
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Iraqi Dossier
