Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Amid speculation that the country is descending into civil war, Iraq's Shia majority has now joined the Sunni Muslims in attacking coalition forces in a spate of violent attacks over the past few days.
http://www.itv.com/news/1963632.html

Independent analysts, such as Anthony Cordesman of the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, have long warned that active opposition by the Shiite population would doom the occupation and make Iraq ungovernable.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/April2004/Lobe0406.htm

A man claiming to be a senior al-Qaeda figure that the United States believes is operating in Iraq has released a tape calling for the country's Sunni Muslims to fight Shi'ites and claiming responsibility for high-profile attacks there.

It is to our advantage that the Shi’ites and the Sunni Muslims do not join forces to fight the coalition. This is an opportune tape calling for the Sunni Muslims to fight the Shi’ites for us which could solve our immediate problems.

Did we make the tape? -Am


'Al-Qaeda' tape urges Iraq civil war
From correspondents in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
April 7, 2004

A MAN claiming to be a senior al-Qaeda figure that the United States believes is operating in Iraq has released a tape calling for the country's Sunni Muslims to fight Shi'ites and claiming responsibility for high-profile attacks there.

The 33-minute audiotape appeared today on a website known as a clearinghouse for militant Islamic messages.

The speaker introduced himself as Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian also known as Ahmed al-Khalayleh who is thought to be a close associate of Osama bin Laden. It was the first tape of any kind attributed to him to be made public.

The tape's authenticity could not be verified immediately. Terrorism experts say that even when such statements cannot be traced to al-Qaeda, they serve the group's cause by inspiring sympathisers.

Zarqawi's whereabouts are unknown, but the web site on which the tape appeared had a transcript heading that said Zarqawi was in Iraq.


http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9214696%255E1702,00.html



18 GIs, 116 Iraqis Killed Since Weekend

Updated 4:15 PM ET April 6, 2004


By HAMZA HENDAWI

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi insurgents and rebellious Shiites challenged the U.S.-led occupation force on two fronts Tuesday, mounting a string of attacks across the south, and at least 30 Iraqis were killed. Sixteen Iraqis died in pitched battles with Marines in the turbulent city of Fallujah.

In all, 18 American soldiers and more than 116 Iraqis have died in three days of clashes, the worst fighting in Iraq since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein. A Salvadoran soldier and one from Ukraine also were killed.

On the Fallujah front, Marines drove into the center of the Sunni city in heavy fighting before pulling back before nightfall. The assault had been promised after the brutal killings and mutilations of four American civilians there last week. Hospital officials said 16 Iraqis died Tuesday and 20 were wounded, including women and children.

The dusty, Euphrates River city 35 miles west of Baghdad is a stronghold of the anti-U.S. insurgency that sprang up shortly after Saddam's ouster a year ago.

U.S. authorities also launched a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia after a series of weekend uprisings in Baghdad and cities and towns to the south that took a heavy toll in both American and Iraqi lives.

The fighting marks the first major outbreak of violence between the U.S.-led occupation force and the Shiites since Baghdad fell a year ago. The 30-year-old al-Sadr, however, does not have a large following among majority Shiites _ many see him as a renegade, too young and too headstrong to lead wisely.

With fighting intensifying ahead of the June 30 handover of power to an Iraqi government, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said American commanders in Iraq would get additional troops if needed. None has asked so far, he said.

State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said al-Sadr and his followers were not representative of a religious cause but of "political gangsterism."

"They're not acting in the name of religion, they're acting in the name of arrogating for themselves political power and influence through violence, because they can't get it through peaceful persuasion," he said.

In the latest U.S. deaths, five Marines were killed Monday _ one in Fallujah and the others on the western outskirts of Baghdad _ and five U.S. soldiers in attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Mosul on Monday and Tuesday. Eight Americans were killed in Sadr City on Sunday. At least 614 American troops have died in Iraq since the war began.

Marines waged a fierce battle for hours Tuesday with gunmen holed up in a residential neighborhood of Fallujah. The military used a deadly AC-130 gunship to lay down a barrage of fire against guerrillas, and commanders said Marines were holding an area several blocks deep inside the city. At least two Marines were wounded.

The crackdown on al-Sadr, who has drawn backing from young and impoverished Shiites with rousing sermons demanding a U.S. withdrawal, sent his black-garbed militiamen against coalition troops Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Fighting in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Kut, Karbala and Amarah and in a northern Baghdad neighborhood killed 30 Iraqis, coalition military officials said.

Fearing a U.S. move to arrest him, al-Sadr on Tuesday left a fortress-like mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where he had been holed up for days, his aides said.

Al-Sadr issued a statement saying he was ready to die to oust the Americans. He urged his followers to resist foreign forces.

"America has shown its evil intentions, and the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it. They must defend their rights by any means they see fit," the al-Sadr statement said.

"I'm prepared to have my own blood shed for what is holy to me," he said.

Al-Sadr moved to his main office in Najaf, in an alley near the city's holiest shrine, according to a top aide, Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali. Hundreds of militiamen were protecting the office Tuesday, but there was no independent confirmation al-Sadr was there.

Perhaps more worrisome than the current fight with al-Sadr's forces is the possibility that he will start drawing support from more mainstream Shiite leaders who have largely supported the Americans until now.

The U.S.-led coalition announced a murder warrant against al-Sadr on Monday and suggested it would move to capture him soon. U.S. officials would not explain why they were only releasing word of the warrant Monday. They said an unnamed Iraqi judged had issued it in the past months.

Still, the heavy battles over the past three days showed that even with limited backing, al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia is capable of a damaging fight.

The militiamen clashed with coalition troops Sunday in Baghdad and outside Najaf in fierce fighting that killed 61 people, including eight American soldiers.

In Nasiriyah on Tuesday, 15 Iraqis were killed and 35 wounded in clashes between militiamen and Italian troops, coalition spokeswoman Paola Della Casa told an Italian news agency Apcom. Eleven Italians troops were slightly wounded.

Della Casa said the Iraqi attackers used civilians as human shields, and a woman and two children were among the dead.

Fighting overnight in Amarah between al-Sadr's followers and British troops killed 15 Iraqis and wounded eight, said coalition spokesman Wun Hornbyckle.

In Kut, militiamen attacked an armored personnel carrier carrying Ukrainian soldiers, killing one and wounding five, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. Two militiamen were killed in the fight. Ukraine has about 1,650 troops in Iraq.

U.S. Marines encircled Fallujah early Monday, and on Tuesday, they penetrated several central neighborhoods for the first time. Mortar and rocket-propelled grenade blasts were heard, and one witness said a Humvee was ablaze.

Heavy fighting also occurred between Marines entrenched in the desert and guerrillas firing from houses on Fallujah's northeast outskirts. For hours into the night, the sides traded fire, while teams of Marines moved in and out of the neighborhood, seizing buildings to use as posts and battling gunmen. Helicopters weaved overhead, firing at guerrilla hide-outs.

"We are several blocks deep in the city of Fallujah," Marine Maj. Briandon McGolwan said. He said several helicopters were hit by small arms fire, but none were downed. He said Marines had detained 14 people since Monday.

L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached the June 30 handover, a date he said was inviolable.

"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," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

___

Associated Press reporters Bassem Mroue and Lourdes Navarro contributed to this report from Fallujah.

http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=040406&cat=news&st=newsd81pgvp00&src=....