U.S. Forces Retake Shi'ite Town in Iraq

[seruriermarshal]

KUT, Iraq (*******) - U.S.-led troops retook control of the eastern Iraqi town of Kut on Friday, witnesses said, two days after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city center after clashes with Shi'ite militiamen.



Residents said American soldiers were in control of the center of the town, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, and convoys of U.S. armored vehicles were seen on roads to the area.


They said there were reports that the office of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Kut had been attacked by the soldiers.


Sadr's followers launched an uprising this week, battling U.S.-led forces in Shi'ite areas across Iraq (news - web sites). One Ukrainian soldier was killed earlier in the week in the fighting in Kut.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040409/wl_afp/iraq_amara_britain_toll&cid=1512&ncid=1478

[duck]

Ah well, the "Mehdi Militia" will disband and melt back into the population. Next week they'll be applying for jobs at Coalition bases again, with a broad smile. And looking for the next religious Fuehrer to lead them into mindless violence.

[seruriermarshal]

KUT, Iraq (*******) - U.S.-led troops retook control of the eastern Iraqi town of Kut on Friday, witnesses said, two days after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city center after clashes with Shi'ite militiamen.



Residents said American soldiers were in control of the center of the town, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, and convoys of U.S. armored vehicles were seen on roads to the area.


******* television pictures showed the Kut office of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in ruins after coming under attack.


Sadr's followers launched an uprising this week, battling U.S.-led forces in Shi'ite areas across Iraq (news - web sites). One Ukrainian soldier was killed earlier in the week in the fighting in Kut.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040409/ts_nm/iraq_kut_dc&cid=564&ncid=1478

[seruriermarshal]

U.S. Military Says S. Iraq City Retaken

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S.-led coalition forces have retaken control of the southern Iraqi city of Kut, a military spokeswoman said Friday.

The spokeswoman had no other information about how troops regained control of the city, which had been overrun by a militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.


On Thursday, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq (news - web sites), vowed that coalition forces would move "imminently" to break al-Sadr's hold over Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, and destroy his al-Mahdi Army militia across the country in a new operation dubbed "Resolute Sword."


Ukrainian troops in Kut abandoned their base Wednesday in the face of mortar fire and gunbattles, allowing al-Mahdi Army fighters to sweep in, seizing weapons stores and planting their flag.


The militia also has full control over the southern cities of Kufa and the central part of Najaf. Police in the cities have abandoned their stations or stood aside as the gunmen roam the streets.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040409/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_kut&cid=540&ncid=2100




http://www.5kx.com/toysale/bbs/UploadFile/2004-4/200449163345339.jpg

[talib_killa34]

Good to hear...
It's payback time in Falooj. :bash:

[Brozozo]

Good to hear...
It's payback time in Falooj. :bash:

:P

[seruriermarshal]

Coalition forces recapture central Iraq town from Shiite radicals

KUT, Iraq (AFP) - The US army regained control of the central Iraqi city of Kut following fierce fighting with Shiite Muslim militiamen in the early hours, the US army and Iraqi police revealed.


AFP Photo



"The US army is in control of Kut," a US military spokeswoman in Baghdad said Friday.


A senior Iraqi police officer told AFP in Kut that the US troops recaptured the city from Mehdi Army militiamen after destroying the offices of their leader, Shiite radical Moqtada Sadr, late Thursday.


"US troops regained controlled of Kut at 2:00 am (2200 GMT Thursday) but the forces met fierce resistance from the Mehdi Army militiamen and the battle lasted until 5:00 am (0100 GMT)," said Lieutenant Colonel Fahd Hassan.


Late Thursday, the coalition "hit and levelled the headquarters of Moqtada Sadr" on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, the officer said, adding that there were not thought to have been any casualties as the office was empty.


Ukrainian troops which were pushed out of Kut on Wednesday took part in the fighting to recapture the city, he said.


An AFP correspondent saw US military reinforcements on their way to Kut from the capital Friday morning.


A convoy of some 100 vehicles -- tanks, armoured vehicles, troop carriers and ambulances -- was seen on the main highway to the city.


Iraqi police and members of the coalition-trained Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) were deployed on the northern outskirts of the city.


The police colonel said US commanders had contacted him after the pre-dawn offensive and "asked me to get in touch with Kut television and instruct the staff there to resume normal broadcasting which had been interrupted".


"They told me that if the Mehdi Army controls the television building they will hit it," he added.


Hassan said he spoke to the television employees who were back on the job. "They told me that the militiamen had evacuated the premises and that transmission was interrupted due to a technical problem."


The director of Kut's emergency hospital, Abdel Kader Fadel, meanwhile told AFP that Ukrainian troops searched the establishment Thursday night looking for wounded militiamen.


"So far we have not received a single casualty. I think there are casualties out there among the Mehdi Army but they are afraid to come to the hospital and be arrested," he said.


The US commander of ground forces in Iraq (news - web sites), Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, said Thursday the coalition would "imminently" retake Kut from Sadr's militiamen.


In an interview with AFP in Sadr's office across the Euphrates Thursday, two of the radical leader's spokesmen said his Mehdi Army militia was ready to fight to the last man.


"We are steadfast and are ready for any confrontation. Allah has opened the way for our martyrdom and (for us) it will be victory or martyrdom," Seyyed Mohammed Jawda said.





Sadr followers controlled the city Thursday in cooperation with Iraqi police and units from the ICDC.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040409/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_kut&cid=1514&ncid=1480

[talib_killa34]

Broz, I need to borrow your avatar! ;)

[Scrim]

U.S. Troops Retake Most of Key Iraqi City

Updated 5:15 PM ET April 9, 2004


By LOURDES NAVARRO

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - The United States said it unilaterally ordered Marines to stop fighting in the besieged Sunni city of Fallujah on Friday, but after dark the U.S. military apparently rescinded the order as it called in punishing airstrikes from AC-130 gunships.

On the western edge of Baghdad insurgents hit a fuel convoy, killing one U.S. soldier and an Iraqi driver the military reported.

A Baghdad correspondent for the Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera said the convoy had been carrying fuel near Al-Amiriyah and that not fewer than nine people were killed in the attack. The report said none of the dead had been identified. The report could not be independently confirmed.

A second soldier was killed Friday in an attack using roadside bombs and small arms at Camp Cook, a U.S. base in northern Baghdad, the military said.

The confirmed deaths brought the toll of U.S. troops killed across Iraq this week to 42. The fighting also has killed more than 460 Iraqis _ including more than 280 in Fallujah, a hospital official said. At least 643 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

Iraq's top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, announced a unilateral pause in the 5-day-old Fallujah operation to allow Sunni clerics and American military leaders an opportunity to talk with anti-coalition insurgents.

It also was designed to allow in humanitarian aid and let beleaguered residents bury their dead. Cars filled with women, children and the elderly streamed out of the city, a bastion of anti-U.S. Sunni guerrillas 35 miles west of Baghdad.

The Lebanese Al Hayat-LBC satellite channel said Friday it had received a letter from a hitherto unknown group, the Mohammadi Jihad Brigades, claiming responsibility for kidnapping foreigners in Iraq.

The TV said it had received a letter from the group demanding negotiations for the lifting of the U.S. blockade around Fallujah in exchange for the release of the foreigners it is holding.

The violence that has intensified and spread throughout Iraq this week has created a degree of cooperation between anti-American elements in both the Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities, which have been deeply at odds for decades.

U.S. troops drove into Kut before dawn Friday, pushing out members of the militia headed by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr that had seized the southern textile and farming center this week after Ukrainian troops abandoned the city under heavy attack.

A U.S. helicopter struck al-Sadr's main office in Kut, killing two people, witnesses said. Americans were patrolling the streets during daylight hours.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said he expected the operation to retake Kut from al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia would be finished by Saturday morning.

"We are fairly comfortable that the town of al-Kut is well on its way to coming back under coalition control," he said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling told CNN he believed there were 300-400 al-Sadr militants in Kut on Thursday night who had been trying "to intimidate the people" in the city of about 250,000.

The Kut operation represented a major foray by the American military in a region where U.S. allies have struggled to deal with the uprising.

The siege on Fallujah, however, brought a condemnation from one of the most pro-American members of the U.S.-picked Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi.

"These operations were a mass punishment for the people of Fallujah," Pachachi told Al-Arabiya TV. "It was not right to punish all the people of Fallujah and we consider these operations by the Americans unacceptable and illegal."

The heavy fighting for Fallujah was prompted by the March 31 slaying of four U.S. civilians in the city. Their burned bodies were mutilated and dragged through the streets by a mob that hung two of them from a bridge.

The Marines called a halt to offensive operations in Fallujah at noon Friday. Only 90 minutes later, Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, commander of the 1st Battalion 5th Marine Regiment, said he had permission to resume offensive operations.

For hours afterward, there was sporadic shooting in the city that for some Iraqis has become a symbol of defiance. Marines were hunkered down around the city and in an industrial zone just inside, without entering residential neighborhoods. Before the halt was called, there was fighting around a mosque that was the center of battles for three days.

A year to the day after Marines toppled Saddam Hussein's statue in Firdos Square, a poster of al-Sadr was attached Friday to an unfinished bronze monument at the site. U.S. soldiers climbed up and tore it down.

The felling of Saddam's statue before a cheering crowd of Iraqis on April 9 was an enduring image of Iraq's liberation.

But on Friday, Baghdad was tense, and a curfew was imposed in Firdos Square, where at least two armored vehicles were parked. At the western entrance to the capital, gunmen freely roamed the main highway, and a burned tanker truck sent a huge pall of smoke over the city.

In the afternoon, a mortar round hit a small building near the square. No injuries were reported in the attack, which shook two nearby hotels that are home to many foreigners.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that a year ago, he had not imagined Iraq would be in its current state.

"I thought that they would go from some good days and some bad days. There is no doubt that the current situation is very serious and it is the most serious that we have faced," Straw told the BBC.

Al-Sadr forces kept control of Kufa and the center of the nearby holy city of Najaf, despite a vow by U.S. commanders Wednesday to crush the militia.

Any U.S. operation to oust the militiamen would be hampered by the hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims who are in southern cities and roads this weekend for al-Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of the period of mourning for a 7th-century martyred saint.

Al-Sadr on Friday demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq, saying they now face "a civil revolt."

"I direct my speech to my enemy Bush and I tell him that if your excuse was that you are fighting Saddam, then this thing is a past and now you are fighting the entire Iraqi people," al-Sadr said in a sermon, delivered by one of his deputies at the Imam Ali Shrine, Shiite Islam's holiest site, in Najaf.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed not to withdraw 530 troops in Iraq despite the seizure of three Japanese civilians. Militants have threatened to kill the three unless the troops leave Iraq. A senior aide to al-Sadr denied his militia was responsible for kidnapping the Japanese.

At least three other foreign civilians are being held captive.

Gunmen on the highway outside Baghdad were seen stopping a car carrying two Western civilians _ apparently private security guards _ since both had sidearms. The gunmen pulled the men from the car, firing at the ground to warn them to obey. Their fate was not known.

U.S. troops also came under heavy attack in Muqdadiyah, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad. Up to 80 insurgents ambushed a U.S. patrol late Thursday, prompting an overnight battle. At least three insurgents were killed and up to 20 wounded, said Lt. Col. Peter A. Newell.

Insurgents armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades have put up stiff resistance in Fallujah, but Marines have said they are winning the battle, holding at one point about a quarter of the city.

The security firm that employed the four Americans who were killed in Fallujah, Blackwater USA, told The New York Times that they were lured into an ambush by members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.

The Iraqis promised the Blackwater-led convoy safe passage, but suddenly blocked off the road instead, preventing any escape from waiting gunmen, Patrick Toohey, Blackwater's vice president for government relations said in Friday's editions.

Two senior Pentagon officials said an inquiry into the slayings was continuing.

In Najaf, a policeman watched helplessly Thursday as a pickup truck carrying a dozen heavily armed Shiite militiamen went past his police station _ already in the militia's hands.

Such action has raised concerns about the performance and loyalty of a police force that U.S. administrators are counting on to keep security in the future Iraq.

Coalition forces also have moved in to block the road between Kufa and Najaf, a senior aide to al-Sadr, Sheik Qays al-Khaz'ali, told the AP.

Al-Sadr, a young, firebrand anti-U.S. cleric, is thought to be holed up in his office in Najaf, protected by scores of gunmen. He has said he is willing to die resisting any U.S. attempt to capture him.

Al-Sadr supporters clashed with coalition forces in the southern city of Karbala and in Baqouba, north of Baghdad. At least six Iraqis were killed, officials said.

[Brozozo]

Broz, I need to borrow your avatar! ;)





lol, if you insist!