Marines pause, but clashes continue
 
The Associated Press The Associated Press
Saturday, April 10, 2004
One year after the fall of Baghdad, allies shaken
 
BAGHDAD On the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, U.S. forces moved against a Shiite militia revolt in the south Friday, retaking most of one city from the gunmen. Rising anger from U.S.-appointed Iraqi leaders forced Marines to pause their bloody siege of Falluja to allow talks to ease the violence.
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At a Baghdad square where Saddam’s statue was toppled a year ago, soldiers took down a disturbing new icon — pictures of the radical Shiite cleric whose followers have risen up against coalition forces in the south.
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Gunmen running rampant at the western entrance to Baghdad attacked a fuel convoy, killing one U.S. soldier and an Iraqi driver and causing a fiery explosion that sent a pall of black smoke into the sky. A Baghdad correspondent for Al-Jazeera Arab television said at least nine people were killed in the attack.
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A second soldier was killed in an attack using roadside bombs and small arms at Camp Cook, a U.S. base in northern Baghdad, the military said. Three Marines were killed a day earlier, the military announced. Another tanker truck was hit on the north side of Baghdad in the evening and was in flames.
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The deaths brought the toll of U.S. troops killed across Iraq this week to 45. The fighting also has killed more than 460 Iraqis — including more than 280 in Falluja, a hospital official said. At least 646 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.
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For the fifth day, U.S. forces were fighting on two fronts in Iraq. The move to retake Kut represented a major foray into the south, where the U.S. military handed over security duties months ago to its allies, who have struggled in some cities to put down Sadr’s militia.
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Iraq’s top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, announced a unilateral pause in the five-day-old assault on Falluja, aimed at uprooting Sunni insurgents, to allow members of the Iraqi Governing Council to hold talks with city leaders aimed at reducing the violence.
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The halt was also designed to allow in humanitarian aid and let beleaguered residents bury their dead. Many families, emerging from their homes for the first time in days, buried slain relatives in the city football stadium.
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A stream of hundreds of cars carrying women, children and elderly headed out of the city after Marines announced they would be allowed to leave. Families pleaded with Marines to be allowed to take out men, and when Marines refused, some entire families turned back.
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During the day, the pause in fighting mostly held, though sporadic gunfire rattled. But after nightfall, the military called out one of its heaviest weapons, an AC-130 gunship that sprayed targets with gunfire from the air.
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The heavy fighting — during which mosques have been damaged and buildings damaged — has turned the city of 200,000 in a symbol of resistance in some Iraqis’ eyes and began to open a split between the Iraqi Governing Council and the U.S. administration that appointed it.
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A coalition spokesman said U.S. officials had agreed to the pause in fighting at the council’s request so that the talks could take place. But Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt underlined that the talks were not negotiations, suggesting the military would not be making concessions.
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A Shiite council member, Abdul-Karim Mahoud Mohammedawi, visited Sadr’s office in Najaf and announced he was suspending his membership until ‘‘the bleeding stops in all Iraq.’’ Another member, Ghazi Yawer, said he would quit if the Falluja talks launched Friday fell through.
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One of the strongest pro-U.S. voices on the council, Adnan Pachachi, denounced the U.S. siege. ‘‘It was not right to punish all the people of Falluja and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal,’’ Pachachi told Al-Arabiya TV.
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U.S. troops drove into Kut before dawn Friday, pushing out members of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia that had seized the southern textile and farming center this week after Ukrainian troops abandoned the city under heavy attack.
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A U.S. helicopter struck Sadr’s main office in Kut, killing two people, witnesses said. Americans were patrolling the streets during daylight hours.
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Kimmitt said he expected the operation to retake Kut would be finished by Saturday morning. ‘‘We are fairly comfortable that the town of Kut is well on its way to coming back under coalition control,’’ he said.
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But he suggested a move against Sadr’s militia controlling parts of Najaf and Karbala would have to wait, because hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are in the area this weekend for Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of the period of mourning for a 7th-century martyred saint.
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‘‘We expect that those special cities that are currently observing the Arbaeen will continue to have some Sadr presence,’’ he told reporters.
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Sadr on Friday demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq, saying they now face ‘‘a civil revolt.’’
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‘‘I direct my speech to my enemy Bush and I tell him ... you are fighting the entire Iraqi people,’’ Sadr said in a sermon, delivered by one of his deputies at the Imam Ali Shrine, Shiite Islam’s holiest site, in Najaf.
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Sadr, a firebrand anti-U.S. 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 U.S. attempt to capture him.
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The British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said that a year ago, he had not imagined Iraq would be in its current state.
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‘‘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.
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The felling of Saddam’s statue before a cheering crowd of Iraqis on April 9 was an enduring image of Iraq’s liberation.
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But on Friday, Baghdad was tense, and a curfew was imposed in Firdos Square, where at least two armored vehicles were parked.
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In the afternoon, a mortar round hit a small building near the square. No injuries were reported in the attack, which shook two nearby hotels that are home to many foreigners.
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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.
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The heavy fighting for Falluja was prompted by the March 31 slaying of four U.S. 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.
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Two senior Pentagon officials said an inquiry into the slayings was continuing.
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In other developments:
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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 Sadr denied his militia was responsible for kidnapping the Japanese. At least three other foreign civilians are being held captive.
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U.S. troops also came under heavy attack in Muqdadiyah, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad. Up to 80 insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol late Thursday, prompting an overnight battle. At least three insurgents were killed and up to 20 wounded, said Lieutenant Colonel Peter A. Newell.
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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.

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