IRAQ: U.S. MILITARY SAY IRAQI GUERILLAS MAY HAVE PULLED AWAY DOZENS OF CASUALTIES FROM EARLIER FIREFIGHTS IN SAMARRA

Record ID: 647905

  • Title: IRAQ: U.S. MILITARY SAY IRAQI GUERILLAS MAY HAVE PULLED AWAY DOZENS OF CASUALTIES FROM EARLIER FIREFIGHTS IN SAMARRA
  • Date: 2nd December 2003
  • Summary: (EU) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 1, 2003)(REUTERS) 1. U.S. BRIGADIER GENERAL MARK KIMMIT, SPOKESMAN OF THE COALITION FORCES IN IRAQ AND DAN SENOR, COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY SPOKESMAN ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE; SCU SCREEN READING: "DAILY OPERATIONS BRIEF" 2. SOUNDBITE (English) KIMMIT, SAYING "The reports that we had are from visual battle fields reports, these reports that we got from soldiers who were involved in the engagement and that is why we have said that all these are estimated killed and wounded." 3. MV MEDIA 4. SOUNDBITE (English) KIMMITT ANSWERING A QUESTION FROM A REPORTER, SAYING "I would expect that the enemy would probably have pulled the bodies back and taken them to wherever his initial locations were but that's only speculation." 5. SLV MEDIA 6. SOUNDBITE (English) KIMMITT SAYING "We have no indication of foreign fighters among the dead with regards to co-ordination it was a large group of people we have seen since the end of major combat operation in May 1st. We have seen a couple of other large operations like this. Are we looking at this one closely? Yes. Is this something larger than we have seen over the past couple of months? Yes, and we will look at it and we will take the appropriate measures in the future operations." 7. MV MEDIA; SLV KIMMITT AND SENOR LEAVING THE CONFERENCE ROOM 1.26 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEGWUZCD8XRG8ZL749734L1UUX
  • Story Text: U.S. military say Iraqi guerrillas may have pulled
    away dozens of casualties from earlier firefights in
    Samarra.

    U.S. troops killed 54 guerrillas in a fierce battle
    to fight off co-ordinated ambushes on armoured convoys
    carrying large quantities of banknotes in the tense Iraqi
    town of Samarra, the U.S. Army said on Monday (December 1, 2003).

    A U.S. soldier was also killed west of Baghdad on
    Monday after insurgents attacked his patrol, the military
    said.

    But confusion hung over the Samarra death toll, which a
    U.S. military spokesman at the town earlier put at 46.

    Military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told
    a Baghdad news conference that 54 "enemy combatants" were
    killed in firefights that raged for most of Sunday
    afternoon in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad.

    "The reports that we had are from visual battle fields
    reports, these are reports that we got from soldiers who
    were involved in the engagement," Kimmitt said.

    "I would expect that the enemy would probably have
    pulled the bodies back and taken them to wherever his
    initial locations were but that's only speculation," he
    added.

    Colonel Frederick Rudesheim, commander of the U.S. 4th
    Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, earlier told
    reporters at the U.S. base in Samarra that 46 guerrillas
    were killed and 11 captured.

    Police said eight civilians had also been killed,
    including an Iranian pilgrim. Doctors said they had only
    seen six bodies, but Rudesheim said this did not mean U.S.

    forces had misjudged the number of insurgents killed.

    One policeman in Samarra, Captain Sabti Awad, said
    American troops fired randomly, killing and wounding
    civilians, after the U.S. convoys were attacked while they
    delivered money to banks. Rudesheim said troops only fired
    aimed shots.

    Rudesheim said some of the attackers wore the black
    clothing and headscarves of deposed President Saddam
    Hussein's Fedayeen militia.

    Several burned-out cars littered the streets of the
    town, a focus of anti-U.S. anger in the "Sunni triangle"
    region. Dried blood stained the dust outside a mosque.


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