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| Iraq-Jordan |
| U.S. Seizes Najaf Governor’s House, Kills 41 Militiamen |
| 2004-05-06 |
| Thu May 6, 2004 12:11 PM ET By Khaled Farhan and Suleiman al-Khalidi NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces battled militia loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr near the holy city of Najaf Thursday, seizing the governor’s mansion and killing 41 militia fighters in a lightning operation. Witnesses said seven or eight U.S. tanks surrounded the governor’s house, about five km (three miles) from the sensitive religious sites in the city center, and troops took occasional fire from militiamen holed up in the area using AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades. U.S. tanks also moved into nearby Kerbala, another city holy to Shi’ite Muslims, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Baghdad.. The tanks took up positions close to the main shrines after destroying Sadr offices with machinegun fire. Najaf locals said some fleeing militiamen had taken refuge in their homes, raising fears U.S. forces could be drawn into urban fighting if they decided to flush out militia in the area. Doctors at a local hospital said they had received three dead from the area -- two women and a nine-year-old child -- and were also treating at least nine wounded, some of them women. The troops retook the governor’s office as Paul Bremer, the U.S.-appointed administrator of Iraq, named a new governor for the city and again denounced Sadr as an outlaw. A senior coalition military official said the governor’s office had been taken largely without a fight. But east of the city, across the Euphrates River, U.S. forces drew out fighters of Sadr’s Mehdi Army, and killed 41 of them in fierce fighting, the official said. He gave no details about any U.S. casualties. Lieutenant Colonel Pat White, head of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Brigade around the governor’s mansion, said his force was still taking fire from areas around the building. "In order to secure the governor’s compound we are getting contact from all sides and we are dealing with it now. Looks like the enemy is now breaking contact," he told CNN. As he was being interviewed, his voice was drowned out by gunfire, which he identified as being from a heavy machine gun on one of the tanks guarding the compound. "If you gonna go down in there, you’d better be prepared for it because there are a lot of them," he said, adding that his battalion had killed about 20 Mehdi Army fighters. In Kerbala, witnesses said about eight heavy armored vehicles and six lighter vehicles were positioned in the city center, about 500 meters (yards) from the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines. Witnesses earlier said U.S. troops were engaging Mehdi Army fighters firing RPGs, AK-47s and mortar rounds near the city’s center. Italian troops also clashed with Sadr’s militiamen, engaging in a short gunbattle south of Nassiriya, Italian officials said. U.S.-led forces in Iraq are trying to crush Sadr’s militia before a scheduled June 30 hand over of sovereignty to Iraqis. They have said they will refrain from entering Shi’ite shrines in Najaf and Kerbala, which would incite widespread fury. Mainstream Iraqi Shi’ite leaders urged Sadr this week to disarm and allow a political end to his nearly month-long standoff with occupying troops in and around Najaf. Earlier, as the operation was launched, witnesses reported seeing plumes of smoke rising from a cemetery on the fringes of the city as U.S. helicopters swooped low over the area. Bremer, speaking to reporters as he appointed the new governor for Najaf, denounced Sadr, saying he had used the holy sites of the region -- which are deeply sacred to Iraq’s 60 percent Shi’ite majority -- to launch his rebellion. "These armed bands have fired mortars from the mosque of Kufa, they have stored arms and munitions in the mosques of Iraq’s holy cities," Bremer said as he installed Adnan Zurfi as Najaf’s governor. The Shi’ite leaders called on Sadr to pull out of mosques in the area and Bremer suggested the U.S.-led occupation would help them reassert control over Najaf and other cities held by rebels, without specifying how. Bremer called on Sadr, who is wanted in connection with the murder of another Shi’ite cleric last year, to surrender. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #2 "Taters" getting mashed. |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-05-06 5:37:31 PM |
| #1 It sure is funny that the hospitals never report any men of military age as being wounded. I guess they think we are really that stupid too believe all that gets killed by the US are women and children. |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-05-06 4:47:25 PM |