IRAQ: HEAVY FIGHTING ERUPTS BETWEEN U.S. TROOPS AND SHI'ITE MILITIAMEN IN SADR CITY AND RAMADI
Record ID:
376184
IRAQ: HEAVY FIGHTING ERUPTS BETWEEN U.S. TROOPS AND SHI'ITE MILITIAMEN IN SADR CITY AND RAMADI
- Title: IRAQ: HEAVY FIGHTING ERUPTS BETWEEN U.S. TROOPS AND SHI'ITE MILITIAMEN IN SADR CITY AND RAMADI
- Date: 4th October 2004
- Summary: (W3) SADR CITY BAGHDAD, IRAQ (OCTOBER 4, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF NIGHT SHOT / MILITIAMAN FIRING MORTAR (2 SHOTS) 0.13 2. VARIOUS OF MEHDI ARMY MILITIAMEN CARRYING RIFLES ROAMING STREET/ FIRING (3 SHOTS) 0.23 (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (OCTOBER 5, 2004) (REUTERS) 3. IRAQI POLICE CAR AND U.S. MILITARY VEHICLE ON SCENE 0.28 4.
- Embargoed: 19th October 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SADR CITY, BAGHDAD, RAMADI IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAED5LENB3DOP7T7F1ZBNRQ8HMK
- Story Text: Clashes erupted between U.S troops and militias in
Sadr City and Ramadi as Iraqis say their main concern is security.
Heavy fighting erupted between U.S. troops and
Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad's Sadr City slum on Monday
(October 4, 2004) night and American AC-130 aircraft pounded
suspected rebel positions, witnesses said.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
The attack on Sadr City came after the U.S. military
said it had retaken control of the city of Samarra, part of
a major offensive designed to crush insurgent strongholds.
The attack on the slum, a stronghold of firebrand
Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, was part of an offensive by
U.S. and Iraqi forces to crush a raging insurgency and take
back all of Iraq before elections scheduled for January.
Residents said they could hear the sound of AC-130
rapid-fire cannons as blasts shook Sadr City, home to more
than two million people. "I hear explosions. AC-130 planes were
firing," said a Sadr City resident.
He said he saw at least 12 tanks moving into Sadr City
late on Monday.
Helicopters could be heard in Baghdad heading in the
direction of Sadr City.
The fighting came after the car bomb attacks brought
more carnage to the streets of two Iraqi cities as the
interim government struggles to stamp out the insurgency
ahead of nationwide polls. More than 100 people were
wounded as bombers struck twice in Baghdad and once in the
northern city of Mosul.
In the morning in central Baghdad several people were
wounded in a mortar attack.
Two mortars were landed near Citizenship Office of the
Ministry of Interior. Police cars and U.S. military
vehicles rushed to the scene blocking off the area as a
U.S. helicopter circled over.
"Two mortars landed here, wounding several people and
they are now receiving treatment at Ibn al-Nafees
hospital." said police officer Lieutenant Colonel Majid
Abdul Hameed
To the west of Baghdad, clashes flared up between U.S.
troops and militiamen in the restive city of Ramadi.
According to witnesses the clashes started late on
Monday (October 4) when militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy,
which was advancing from the western edge of the city.
They said that the clashes continued after midnight as
sounds of loud explosions echoed across the city.
Doctors at Ramadi hospitals said that four Iraqis were
killed and five others wounded, including a women.
Clashes renewed in the early hours on Tuesday (October
5), when militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy while driving in
the main street of the city.
A civilian car was set on fire and four Iraqis were
wounded in the clashes.
There is no immidiate comment from the U.S. army on the
fighting.
While Sadr City remains a bastion of Iraq's majority
Shiite Muslims, Ramadi, Samarra and Falluja form part of
the Sunni heartland, where resistance to the U.S.-backed
government has been the fiercest. It is feared that
inability to stage balloting in the so-called Sunni
Triangle would severely mar, or even invalidate, election
results.
In Baghdad, people showed little interest in remarks
made by U.S. Defence secretary Rumsfeld that there was no
concrete evidence on links between former Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
They said what was important now is security and
stability.
"His (Rumsfeld's) remarks are based on his information
but we do not really care much about what he said. Whether
he (Saddam) had links or not is not important now, what is
important is to restore security and the country be secure
and stable again," said Mohammed al-Khazraji, a Baghdad
resident.
Rumsfeld said on Monday he knew of no "strong, hard
evidence" linking Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda,
despite describing extensive contacts between the two
before the Iraq invasion.
Rumsfeld, during a question-and-answer session before
the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, was asked to
explain the connection between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's
al Qaeda network, blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on
America.
"I have seen the answer to that question migrate in the
intelligence community over a period of a year in the most
amazing way. Second, there are differences in the
intelligence community as to what the relationship was,"
Rumsfeld said.
"To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard
evidence that links the two," Rumsfeld added.
"I just read an intelligence report recently about one
person who's connected to al Qaeda who was in and out of
Iraq. And it is the most tortured description of why he
might have had a relationship and why he might not have had
a relationship. It may have been something that was not
representative of a hard linkage."
Other Iraqis said that Saddam was serving the U.S.
interests in the region, but they decided to get rid of him
when he started to threaten their interests in the region.
U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 and toppled
Saddam and his government in a war whose main justification
offered by the United States was the threat posed by Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons have been
discovered.
But the relationship between Saddam's government and al
Qaeda also figured in the U.S. case for war.
A small Pentagon intelligence-analysis office found
what it considered evidence of Iraq-al Qaeda ties. Rumsfeld
was one of the Bush administration officials publicly
describing this link. On Sept. 26, 2002, Rumsfeld told
reporters at the Pentagon of evidence of contacts and
cooperation.
As part of the increasing spate of attacks, a roadside
bomb was exploded near a U.S. military convoy west of
Baghdad.
The convoy was attacked as it was driving in a highway
west of the capital.
There is no immediate comment from the U.S. military on
the casualties.
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