- Title: IRAQ/SYRIA: Iraq fighting intensifies
- Date: 29th March 2008
- Summary: (W3) BASRA, IRAQ (MARCH 28, 2008) (REUTERS) BURNED OUT MILITARY VEHICLE/CHILDREN LOOKING
- Embargoed: 13th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA8AQLBCHD21ZSEX24P1HLKSZFI
- Story Text: Four days of conflict between US and Iraq forces and Shi'ite militants in Iraq show no sign of ending.
U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four-day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday (March 28), launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad in heavy clashes.
Reuters pictures from Basra showed masked gunmen from Sadr's Mehdi Army still in control of the streets, openly carrying rocket launchers and machine guns.
The Iraqi ground commander in Basra, Major-General Ali Zaidan, told Reuters his forces had killed 120 "enemy" fighters and wounded around 450 since the campaign began on Tuesday.
A British military spokesman said U.S. warplanes opened fire in Basra for the first time, dropping bombs under guidance of U.S. or British controllers operating with Iraqis on the ground.
The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi'ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose forces have failed to drive fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr off the streets.
Authorities shut down Baghdad with a strict curfew, but that did not halt rocket attacks and clashes in the capital.
U.S. helicopters repeatedly fired into Baghdad's Sadr City slum and other Shi'ite areas where fighters are holed up.
In Iraq's second-biggest city Basra where he launched the crackdown on Tuesday, Maliki extended a 72 hours deadline he had given militants to surrender, saying they had until April 8 to turn in their weapons for cash.
But Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters remained defiant.
In Syria, Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari blamed the upsurge in violence on criminal gangs rather than militant Shi'ites.
"These groups were involved in smuggling oil and organised crimes and infiltration of the government institutions, encouraging corruptions on many levels and that's why the government had to take immediate action,"
he said in an interview with Reuters in Damascus.
Meanwhile, defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim said his forces in Basra had been caught off-guard by their foes.
"We supposed that this operation would be a normal operation, but we were surprised by this resistance and have been obliged to change our plans and our tactics," he told a news conference in Basra.
In a sign of the worsening situation, reporters were brought to the briefing in military vehicles and kept inside for hours afterwards as fighting raged nearby.
Parliament called an emergency meeting, but just 54 members of the 275-seat body attended the session inside the fortified "Green Zone"
government and diplomatic compound, which was bombarded by rockets as they gathered.
One missile hit the Green Zone office of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, killing a security guard. The U.S. embassy ordered staff in the zone to stay under cover where possible and wear body armour and helmets when in the open.
The government says it is fighting "outlaws", but Sadr's followers say political parties in Maliki's Shi'ite-led government are using military force to marginalise their rivals ahead of local elections due by October.
The fighting has trapped Basra residents in their homes, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations said it was standing by with blood bags, trauma kits, 200 tonnes of emergency food and 39 million water purification tablets.
In Kerbala, supporters of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki marched to demand the end of militant attacks.
The marchers came out to support Maliki's actions in Basra, where militants have been engaged in four days of fierce fighting with Iraqi and US forces. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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