12 Marines killed in new fighting
U.S. and allied troops battling militants in five Iraqi cities
Patrick Baz / AFP-Getty Images
A U.S. missile hit a vehicle in Sadr City, a Baghdad suburb that saw clashes between U.S. troops and supporters of a radical Shiite cleric.
NBC News and news services
Updated: 6:21 p.m. ET April 06, 2004Fighting between U.S. forces and Iraqi militants spread to at least five cities Tuesday, leaving as many as 12 U.S. Marines dead and 20 others wounded in a particularly fierce firefight, U.S. military officials told NBC News.
The casualties were reported in a heavy clash Tuesday night at an Iraqi government compound in Ramadi, near the Sunni Muslim hotbed of Fallujah west of Baghdad, the officials told NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski in Washington.
A senior defense official confirmed the report, telling The Associated Press that reports from the field said dozens of Iraqis attacked a Marine position near the governor’s palace in Ramadi.
Heavy casualties were inflicted on the insurgents as well, U.S. officials said. No other details were immediately available, including who the attackers were.
Anti-U.S. militant factions also launched strikes directly on the headquarters of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Ramadi and in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, military officials told NBC News. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were coordinated.
In all, 66 Iraqis, 13 Americans and a Ukrainian soldier died Tuesday, officials said, bringing the three-day total to more than 130 Iraqis and more than 30 coalition troops killed in the worst fighting since the war that toppled President Saddam Hussein.
Battles on two fronts
Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shiite Muslims loyal to a militant cleric challenged U.S.-led forces on two fronts Tuesday, mounting battles across four southern Iraqi cities and taking on U.S. Marines in Fallujah, where several columns backed by tanks met heavy fire as they tried to move in.
April 6: Marines started pushing into Fallujah Monday night in operation ‘Vigilant Resolve.’ NBC’s Tom Aspell reports.
Defense officials said that opposition forces in Fallujah had suffered “significant casualties” and that several suspects identified only as “high-value targets” had been taken into custody.
In the south, supporters of the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, rose up again Tuesday, killing 30 Iraqis and a Ukrainian soldier and wounding at least 18 coalition troops.
Al-Sadr issued a statement saying he had left the mosque in Kufa that he had been holed up in and denouncing President Bush as “the father of evil.”
An aide later told reporters that al-Sadr had moved to nearby Najaf and that the uprising would continue until coalition troops were withdrawn from populated areas and prisoners were released.
Dozens of heavily armed militiamen were outside al-Sadr’s office in a small alley near Shiism’s holiest site, the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. The black-garbed gunmen, some carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers, crowded the narrow alley and roamed nearby streets.
There was no way to confirm reports that al-Sadr was inside.
A move from Kufa to Najaf would be unexpected. Al-Sadr is widely unpopular in Najaf, where most Shiites support older, more moderate clerics. By contrast, his al-Mahdi Army has been in virtual control of Kufa since Sunday, holding the police station and patrolling the streets.
Fallujah surrounded
The confrontation with al-Sadr — whose militia waged fierce battles with coalition troops Sunday — and the offensive against Fallujah appeared to represent a tougher approach by U.S. forces ahead of the planned handover of power to an Iraqi government on June 30.
Hundreds of Marines and Iraqi troops began ringing the city this week. As Marines moved in Tuesday night, tank guns and grenade launchers were used to eliminate rooftop sniping positions, and at least three houses were demolished in the process. Two Marines reportedly were wounded when they were fired upon.
April 6: The U.S. military said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was its most immediate priority. NBC’s Richard Engel reports.
Today show
The military reported that four Marines were killed by hostile fire in the area Monday, bringing to five the number of Marines killed in one day. The military gave no details on the deaths, saying only that they took place in Anbar province, where Fallujah is located.
In the Khazimiya district of northern Baghdad, a U.S. soldier died after his Bradley fighting vehicle was hit by a grenade Tuesday. Two other U.S. soldiers were killed Monday when they came under attack by rocket-propelled grenade fire in separate incidents. The names of the three soldiers, all of them members of the 1st Armored Division, were not released.
The deaths in the past two days brought to at least 626 the number of Americans killed in Iraq since the war began.
A U.S. official in Washington said on condition of anonymity that all U.S. officials in Iraq, including those working for the provisional authority, had been told to remain inside their compounds since Monday because of security worries.
Al-Qaida purportedly vows more attacks in Iraq
Second front against al-Sadr
The offensive against Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, comes as the United States is taking a tougher approach against al-Sadr, who has long spoken out against the U.S. occupation and has built up his al-Mahdi Army, although he has not called for anti-U.S. violence in the past.
Fighting was reported in at least four other cities, all of them in the south:
In Nasiriyah, supporters of al-Sadr clashed Tuesday with Italian soldiers, leaving 15 Iraqis dead and 35 wounded, an Italian news agency reported. A dozen Italian soldiers reportedly were wounded.
In Amarah, where British troops are responsible for security, fighting overnight killed 15 Iraqis and wounded eight others, a coalition spokesman said.
In Kut, a Ukrainian soldier was killed and six others were wounded. Ukraine has about 1,650 troops in Iraq, the third-largest contingent among countries that did not take part in last year’s major combat operations.
South of Karbala, Polish soldiers wounded two militiamen, a local government official said.
U.S. administrators declared al-Sadr an “outlaw” Monday and announced a warrant for his arrest, suggesting they would move to arrest him soon.
Al-Sadr launched a wave of protests over the arrest of a top aide last week, sparking gunbattles Sunday between his militiamen and coalition troops in Baghdad and near Najaf that killed at least 52 Iraqis and nine coalition troops, including eight Americans.
The showdown with al-Sadr threatens to heighten tensions between the U.S. occupation and Iraq’s Shiite majority, who have largely avoided anti-U.S. violence — although al-Sadr’s popularity among Shiites is limited. U.S. officials appear to be counting on Shiites to shun al-Sadr, who is seen by many in his community as too young and fiery to lead.
Al-Sadr’s main support is among young seminary students and impoverished Shiites, who are devoted to him because of his anti-U.S. stance and the memory of his father, a religious leader who was gunned down by suspected agents of Saddam in 1999.
The arrest warrant charges al-Sadr with involvement in the murder of a rival cleric who was stabbed to death in April 2003 by a mob in a Shiite shrine in Najaf soon after Saddam’s fall.
Washingtonpost.com
Young cleric inspires uprising
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said military commanders would get more troops to quell violence before the June 30 handover date if they requested them. A senior officer in Washington said U.S. military commanders had begun studying ways they might raise the troop level in Iraq should violence spread much more widely.
Generals believe they have enough forces to handle the attacks, including the Shiite militia violence, but want to know what is available if the situation gets worse, said the officer, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
