Iraq

Fierce fighting kills 30 troops in 3 days

The mounting death toll, intensified attacks and growing unrest are putting a strain on American strategy.

BAGHDAD - The fighting in Iraq worsened Tuesday, as U.S. officials worried that the havoc could impair their control of the country, delay the handover of sovereignty and drive the United Nations out of Iraq again.

About 30 U.S. troops have been killed in three days of fighting, the worst death toll since the first month of the war.

Insurgents and Shiites mounted a string of attacks across Iraq's south, and U.S. Marines launched a major assault on the turbulent city of Fallujah on Tuesday.

Sunni Muslim insurgents killed up to 12 U.S. Marines in heavy fighting in the western city of Ramadi, military spokesmen said. Troops from the United States and several allied countries came under fire in cities across southern Iraq from militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Two more coalition soldiers and at least 66 Iraqis were reported killed.

U.S. military commanders and civilian officials have decided to move slowly against Sadr, fearing that if American forces kill or arrest the rebellious cleric now, wider violence may be ignited, the New York Times reported, quoting unnamed senior Defense Department officials.

U.S. officials worried that they might lose their grip on the country. They said they were worried that an insurrection would prolong the occupation and drive out the United Nations, which recently sent two teams of experts to help figure out how to form an interim government and conduct elections.

So American officials are seeking to enlist other Shiite clerics in a plan to marginalize Sadr. They said they hoped that Iraqi police officers or troops would ultimately arrest him.

The clash in Ramadi, in the Sunni Triangle 60 miles west of Baghdad, erupted Tuesday night when gunmen attacked a Marine position near the provincial governor's palace, the Washington Post reported, quoting an unnamed senior defense official in Washington.

Up to 12 Marines were killed and about 20 wounded, reports said, and the Marines inflicted heavy casualties on their attackers. The attackers' identity was unclear.

In nearby Fallujah, Marine officers said that after two days and nights of fighting, they had established control over much of the city where four civilian contractors were killed last week and the bodies of two were mutilated. Marines reported taking fire as they entered the city from rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

The fighting in southern Iraq killed a soldier from Ukraine and a Bulgarian civilian.

In addition to Tuesday's casualties, the U.S. military reported that five Marines were killed Monday - one in Fallujah and the others on the western outskirts of Baghdad - and five Army soldiers were killed Monday and Tuesday in attacks in Kirkuk, Mosul and a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad.

Iraqi casualty figures were incomplete and impossible to verify, but hospital officials have reported dozens killed in clashes in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq since the weekend.

Across the south, which is dominated by a Shiite population that had long been acquiescent to the occupation, militiamen believed loyal to Sadr clashed for a third day with foreign troops in at least four cities: Amarah, Nasiriyah, Karbala and Kut. Having gone from protest to armed resistance, the militia, known as the Mahdi Army, showed no signs of relenting in a coordinated campaign that has seized bridges, police stations and municipal buildings.

President Bush, speaking at a community college in southern Arkansas, repeated the vow he made Monday to meet the June 30 deadline for having over sovereignty to the Iraqis, acknowledging, "It's going to take a while for them to understand what freedom is all about."

Iraq's civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said on ABC's Good Morning America: "We have problems, there's no hiding that. But basically Iraq is on track to realize the kind of Iraq that Iraqis want and Americans want, which is a democratic Iraq."

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in London for talks with British officials, appealed for the United States to dispatch thousands more troops.

In Norfolk, Va., Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that if commanders on the ground request more forces, more will be sent. "They will decide what they need, and they will get what they want," he said.

The U.S. administration was long divided on how to deal with Sadr, 30, and his militia. A secret plan to have U.S. forces snatch Sadr was scrapped last fall only days before it was to have been carried out, unnamed senior Bush administration and military officials told the New York Times, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal.

They said senior officials decided to scrap the action on the advice of other Shiite clerics in Iraq, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who described Sadr as inconsequential and warned that his stature would only be enhanced if he was arrested, the New York Times quoted the U.S. officers as saying.

But after clashes in Baghdad on Sunday, described by U.S. military officials as the most intense since the war's end, occupation officials have moved to detain Sadr and disband his militia. A warrant was made public Monday for the arrest of Sadr, accused of having a hand in the slaying of a rival Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Abdul Majid al-Khoei, who was shot and hacked to death in a mosque in Najaf last April.

Since last August, the Mahdi Army has grown as a force in southern Iraq, competing for influence and power with three other militias in the region as the date approaches for the U.S. transfer of sovereignty. Estimates of its numbers range from 3,000 to 10,000.

On Tuesday, Sadr left a mosque in Kufa, a stronghold where he had been for two days, and moved to his office a few miles away in Najaf. In a statement issued by his office, Sadr said he was ready to die for his principles, and he called on his followers to continue their resistance against an occupation he described as infidel.

"America has unsheathed its fangs and its despicable intentions, and the conscientious Iraqi people cannot remain silent at all. They must defend their rights in the ways they see fit," the statement read.

- Information from the Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times was used in this report.

Florida headlines

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright