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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Firefight with militia in Sadr City |
| 2004-04-07 |
| BAGHDAD - It turned nasty Sunday afternoon. A U.S. military patrol was navigating the pitted streets of the Baghdad slum that is the stronghold of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr when it ran into about 30 members of the cleric’s personal army. But instead of laying down their arms as ordered, militia members showered the Americans with small-arms fire, pipe bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. The echoes of gunfire raining down from the rooftops sent Iraqi police fleeing their precincts and forced the American patrol to duck into an abandoned building. Two other patrols wound their way into the heart of the slum, and they were attacked almost simultaneously on all sides. Militiamen toppled market stalls into the narrow streets to create makeshift roadblocks. It took more than four hours and a dozen tanks to quell the fighting. When the bullets finally stopped, dozens of Iraqis and eight U.S. soldiers were dead, with 40 more American troops wounded. On Monday, military officials had only started to reconstruct the chaotic chain of events that led to what commanders said was the largest sustained fighting they’d seen in Baghdad since President Bush declared an end to major combat in May. "There is nothing more confusing, literally in the entire universe, than an ambush, especially one where the buildings and the road networks are so narrow," said Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, which is based in Baghdad. "You’re not exactly certain whether you’re being shot at by three people or 33." That was true for both the soldiers and the bystanders. On Sunday, Shakur Abdul Hussein, a 35-year-old engineer who had just finished the ritual washing of his hands to pray, was standing in a mosque courtyard in the heart of Sadr City, the slum named after Muqtada al-Sadr’s late, revered father. The empty streets suddenly echoed with gunfire. Moments later, a bullet ricocheted off a wall and sliced through Hussein’s chest, puncturing a lung. Monday morning, he lay on a narrow hospital bed, a tube in his chest, still trying to figure out what happened. "I thought the Americans were just trying to scare people and make them upset (by shooting in the streets)," Hussein said. "I had no idea (Sadr’s militia) had taken over police stations." The militia’s occupation of police stations was the reason why the U.S. patrols rolled into Sadr City in the first place. U.S. military officials had heard that the cleric’s followers in the holy city of Najaf, 80 miles south of Baghdad, had attacked a coalition base during a protest at about noon Sunday. They said they also discovered through intelligence that Sadr was directing his followers in the capital to seize police stations and government buildings. U.S. officials sent in troops to watch the buildings and disarm militia members. The first ambush killed about four soldiers and injured several others, officials said. Outnumbered, the soldiers fell back nearly 1,000 feet to an abandoned building and dug in there, Dempsey said. Over the next 2 1/2 hours, quick-response forces with Bradley fighting vehicles rolled into the area, only to be pinned down by heavy fire from black-clad militia members hiding on rooftops and in alleyways, officials said. One armored personnel vehicle and one truck were destroyed, and casualties mounted. American troops managed to reach their wounded and began pulling them out. Military officials said they got an unexpected assist from some Iraqi civilians who offered their cars and, in one instance, a bus to take wounded troops to safety. |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #1 sorry i weant sistani well hell khomeini too |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-04-07 6:23:08 PM |