IRAQ: INSURGENTS VOW TO TAKE REVENGE ON UNITED STATES SOLDIERS AND IRAQI FORCES AFTER A NUMBER OF THEM ARE KILLED IN CLASHES

Record ID: 338150

  • Title: IRAQ: INSURGENTS VOW TO TAKE REVENGE ON UNITED STATES SOLDIERS AND IRAQI FORCES AFTER A NUMBER OF THEM ARE KILLED IN CLASHES
  • Date: 27th July 2004
  • Summary: (W5) BUHRIZ, NEAR BAQUBA, IRAQ (JULY 25, 2004) (REUTERS) SCU RELATIVE SITTING BESIDES COFFIN SHOUTING "Death to America, the enemy of people"/ CHILD, NEXT TO THE COFFIN, BEATING HIS CHEST AND SHOUTING"MY FATHER DIED" 0.20 2. SCU MAN OUTSIDE HOUSE SHOUTING "Down with Allawi (Iraqi interim Prime Minister)/ Down with Yawar (interim President) Down w
  • Embargoed: 11th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUHRIZ, NEAR BAQUBA AND FALLUJA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVACTWR64XEV0IZ6JTWKEBNKUZFK
  • Story Text: Iraqi insurgents vow to take revenge on US soldiers
    and Iraqi forces after a number of them are killed in
    fierce clashes in Baquba. More clashes break out in Falluja.

    Angry Iraqis vowed to take revenge against U.S.

    forces and Iraqi police after a number of insurgents were
    killed in fierce clashes on Sunday (July 25, 2004).

    "Down with America!" shouted a relative of one of the
    fighters killed in the clashes adding Iraqi Prime Minister
    Iyad Allawi and President al-Yawar to the list.

    This was one of the first major battles between Iraq's
    security forces and insurgents since the handover of
    sovereignty on June 28 and carried by far the largest death
    toll. No Iraqi security forces or U.S. troops were killed.

    Burhiz is 55 km (35 miles) north of Baghdad and close
    to Baquba where Iraqi police have been regular targets of
    insurgent attacks.

    The US military said the Iraqi police and National
    Guard were attacked by rebel mortar fire and rocket
    propelled grenades as they provided security to U.S.

    soldiers during their raids.

    Masked militants later issued a statement in which they
    vowed to slit the throats of US soldiers and those working
    with them referring to the Iraqi security forces and the
    interim government members.

    The violence comes as Iraq spirals out of control and
    the country's hostage crisis took another turn for the
    worse - two Pakistanis working for a Kuwait-based company
    were feared kidnapped after going missing.

    Pakistan's Foreign Office said the two, an engineer and
    a driver believed to be working for the al-Tamimi Group,
    disappeared on Friday as they drove to Baghdad.

    Over the past 15 months, nationals from nearly two
    dozen countries have been kidnapped in Iraq, sometimes by
    criminal gangs, but increasingly by militants seeking to
    put pressure on governments and foreign companies to pull
    out of the country.

    In a step up in sophistication for militants, a senior
    Egyptian diplomat was seized as he left a Baghdad mosque on
    Friday. Most of those kidnapped so far have been drivers.

    Abductions have sharply increased since April, when
    several dozen people were seized in one month. Around 60
    people have been taken hostage since then, officials say.

    Although most have since been freed, at least six have
    been killed - four of them by beheading - and on at least
    two occasions the hostage-takers' demands have been met, a
    move that may be fuelling the surge in abductions.

    "We, the Buhriz Forces Command, vow before God and His
    messenger and the faithful Mujahideen everywhere that we
    will fight in God's name for as long as we live and we
    promise to show painful suffering to the Americans, the
    cowards. And we say to the spies and to traitors
    everywhere, that our swords will cut their throats, as well
    as those of their cowardly supporters. And we vow to our
    people, and to the families of our heroic martyrs, that we
    will take revenge from the pigs who killed our brothers. We
    congratulate them for being in heaven, which they entered
    before us and we will follow them, God willing, God is
    Greatest," the masked gunman said in Buhriz, near Baquba on
    Sunday.

    The fighting in Burhiz lasted for about an hour. US
    warplanes patrolled the skies during the clashes and U.S.

    artillery guns opened fire to suppress the insurgents'
    mortar positions.

    The battle left two houses pockmarked with bullet holes
    and destroyed a minibus.

    Residents in the area said militants attacked the Iraqi
    police and U.S. soldiers with mortars and rocket-propelled
    grenades (RPG) after U.S. raids around Buhriz, site of
    several recent battles between U.S.-led forces and
    insurgents.

    There was more fighting near Falluja area, west of
    Baghdad, where US forces say they killed 4 Iraqis suspected
    of being insurgents. Witnesses said two civilians had been
    wounded. At least one child was seriously hurt and in
    hospital.

    It was reported that the clashes erupted before noon in
    the Albu Itha district, southwest of Falluja, also a hotbed of
    resistance against the US forces and the interim
    government and where most of the foreigners and some
    journalists have been taken hostage.

    Falluja, a mainly Sunni Muslim area, has continued to
    voice support for deposed president Saddam Hussein, due to
    appear in court for crimes against humanity.


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