Three international military policemen were killed in a midnight clash in Karbala, witnesses said Friday. Conflicting reports said the dead were either Polish or American soldiers. The U.S. command in Baghdad said it had no immediate information on the bloodshed. Gunfire broke out again Friday morning in the same area, around the offices of a senior Shiite Muslim cleric in Karbala, where rivalries among Shiite factions have produced sporadic violence in recent weeks. An armored personnel carrier appeared to be firing as screaming men, women and children fled for cover. Shiite gunmen defiantly shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is Great."
| This was at midnight? Why were the women and kiddies out watching the festivities at midnight? |
Iraqi policemen who were at the scene said a fellow officer also was killed in the firefight. A gunman who claimed that he took part said seven of his comrades were killed in the clash. This man, Malik Kazim, said it involved an apparent joint American-Polish patrol of armored vehicles and Humvees that passed at about 11:45 p.m. by the offices of a local senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Mahmoud al-Hassani, which were guarded by at least 20 gunmen. The report could not be confirmed.
| So the gunnies thought the Good Guys were coming for them and opened fire? |
Since Karbala has been under a 9 p.m. curfew since Tuesday, the international patrol ordered the gunmen inside the offices, they refused and a gunbattle ensued, Kazim said. He said intense gunfire lasted about a half-hour. Dozens of bullet holes, some large-caliber, could be seen in walls in the area Friday morning. A Shiite participant in the gunbattle, Sheik Hazem Saadi, said the dead were Americans. Iraqi policemen who were at the scene said they believed those killed were Polish military policemen. |