http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/27/MNGOF6BL6V1.DTL[Note: Some of the Najaf residents were killing some of the Mahdi Army members]
U.S. hits Fallujah mosque
Gunships, tanks battle insurgents
John F. Burns, New York Times
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Baghdad -- A protracted firefight between Marines and insurgents in a Fallujah suburb Monday culminated with U.S. helicopter gunships and tanks firing at a mosque and toppling its minaret, further dimming hopes for a peaceful end to the three-week siege of the city.
The U.S. command said the battle erupted when insurgents, breaching a shaky cease-fire in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, used the mosque to launch rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire at Marine positions. After two hours, pinned down by fire, the Marines called in helicopters and tanks, which directed "suppressing fire" at the mosque, the command said.
One Marine was killed and eight others wounded in the battle, which also killed eight insurgents, an American spokesman said. He said commanders still intended to go ahead with a plan to send U.S. troops on joint patrols with Iraqi security forces into contested parts of the city. But that plan, put forward by Fallujah civic leaders on Sunday to avert a full-scale American invasion, appeared to be in jeopardy.
With Iraq's prospects of resuming progress toward a peaceful handover of sovereignty on June 30 hanging uneasily in the balance, developments in Fallujah were echoed by fresh tensions at Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, which has been the focal point of a separate confrontation.
At nightfall, residents said a fierce battle was being fought on a key highway leading to Najaf by U.S. troops and militiamen loyal to Muqtada al- Sadr, the rebel Shiite cleric who has holed up in Najaf and adjacent Kufa. Sketchy reports of the Najaf battle suggested that al-Sadr's fighters had taken heavy casualties.
Earlier in the day, U.S. officials had issued an ultimatum ordering al- Sadr to remove his militia's weapons from mosques, shrines and schools in Najaf.
In another development, reports from inside Najaf said that the growing anger of residents there against al-Sadr and his men, who have sown a pattern of lawlessness since their uprising in the city began earlier this month, had taken a startling new turn: A shadowy group has killed at least five militiamen in the past two days.
The reports, from residents who reached relatives in Baghdad by telephone, said the killers call themselves the Thulfiqar Army, after a two-bladed sword that Shiite tradition says was used by the patron saint of Shiism, Imam Ali, the martyred son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed. The group distributed leaflets in Najaf threatening to kill members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army unless they fled Najaf immediately, according to accounts.
One resident said some of al-Sadr's men were shedding the black clothing that has been their signature. The same resident said he knew of two killings of Mahdi Army members on Sunday and that three others had been killed later on Sunday or Monday.
If reports of violence against al-Sadr's followers suggested that the American occupiers might be seeing the beginnings of Iraqis taking action of their own to curb the cleric -- as Paul Bremer, the chief American administrator, has urged -- events in Baghdad on Monday underscored how potent a force al-Sadr remains, at least among many volatile young Shiites who have found a release from their impoverishment in the cleric's anti-American oratory.
The latest outburst of fury against the Americans came when troops raiding a chemical storage warehouse in Baghdad were caught in a huge explosion that sent a tower of white smoke rising hundreds of feet into the air and tons of masonry cascading out onto a busy street. The U.S. command said two soldiers were killed and five others injured; at least eight Iraqi civilians were hurt. Four humvees were set on fire. Military spokesmen withheld details of the cause of the blast.
The explosion set the scene for another frenzied demonstration of anti- American feeling, with young men dancing on top of the burning humvees. Others rushed up to television crews with American helmets and placed one on the head of a donkey; still others ran down the street displaying charred remnants of chemical-weapons clothing pulled from the humvees, some with shoulder patches bearing the survey group's motto, "Find, exploit, eliminate."
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, chief spokesman for the American command, said the tip-off that drew the survey group to raid the store suggested that it was used to produce "chemical munitions" as well as chemical agents used in bomb- making, for insurgent groups.
At perfume shops along the street from the explosion, owners sweeping up shards of glass pointed to rows of decanters labeled with the names of scents. Hamad Taha, 39, one proprietor, was incredulous. "The American forces are always coming and searching this area because they think people are providing the raw chemicals for explosives," he said. "We have ethanol, alcohol and acetone for nail polish remover and cosmetics, as well as chemicals for perfume-making. Instead of breaking the door of the store down, the Americans should have asked us to explain it all to them."
When the perfume makers' protests were relayed to Kimmitt, it was his turn to be incredulous. "There was quite an explosion inside that building, which cost the life of two coalition soldiers, injured a number of them and a number of Iraqi civilians," he said. "So if it was making lipstick, that's some pretty high-test lipstick."
At Fallujah, the fighting around the mosque underscored the odds against a lasting breakthrough to avert a military showdown. The agreement on Sunday to have joint American and Iraqi patrols through the city came as a huge relief to many Iraqis, especially in Baghdad, where there were fears that a resumed Marine offensive could set off a tidal wave of anti-American violence that would sweep through Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods alike.
But Monday's events revived the widespread conviction that both sides have made Fallujah a watershed of the wider Iraqi struggle, and that neither the American forces nor the insurgents will back down.
Toll in Iraq
As of Monday, April 26, 713 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the Department of Defense. Here are the latest identifications reported by the Pentagon:
-- Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, 22, Allegany, N.Y.; killed April 22 by hostile action in Anbar province; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force; Twentynine Palms (San Bernardino County).
-- Marine Cpl. Christopher A. Gibson, 23, Simi Valley (Ventura County); killed April 18 by hostile action in Anbar province; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force; Twentynine Palms.
Killed Saturday when a small boat they were boarding exploded near an Iraqi oil terminal; assigned to the patrol coast boat Firebolt:
-- Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan B. Bruckenthal, 24, Smithtown, N.Y.
-- Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Michael J. Pernaselli, 27, Monroe, N.Y.
-- Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher E. Watts, 28, Knoxville, Tenn.
Killed Saturday when mortar rounds hit their camp in Taji; assigned to the National Guard's 39th Support Battalion, 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division; Hazen, Ark.
-- Army Staff Sgt. Stacey C. Brandon, 35, Hazen, Ark.
-- Army Capt. Arthur L. Felder, 36, Louisville, Ark.
-- Army Chief Warrant Patrick W. Kordsmeier, 49, North Little Rock, Ark.
-- Army Staff Sgt. Billy J. Orton, 41, Humnoke, Ark.
