Fallujah — A rocket fired by U.S. forces battling Sunni insurgents in this violent city apparently hit a mosque filled with people Wednesday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed.
A helicopter fired three missiles that his the mosque. Until that incident, reports showed at least 30 Americans and more than 150 Iraqis were dead in the fighting for the city.
Anti-U.S. violence intensified and spread to cities in northern Iraq on Wednesday as a U.S. helicopter went down and a Marine commander confirmed 12 of his men had been killed in fighting west of Baghdad.
Earlier in the day, fighting was spreading in several directions at once, with Shia militiamen attacking coalition troops and taking control of several southern cities.
U.S. Marines during gunbattle Tuesday with Iraqi insurgents on the outskirts of Fallujah. (Murad Sezer/AP)
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And in Baqouba, a U.S. military helicopter apparently has crashed and was seen burning on the ground in central Iraqi city, witness says. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Marines this week launched a major operation to root out Sunni Muslim guerrillas from one of their strongest bastions, the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. But on Tuesday, the insurgents opened a new front with a bloody attack on Marines in the nearby town of Ramadi.
Gunmen hiding in Ramadi's main cemetery opened fire on U.S. patrols, sparking a gun battle in alleys and near the governor's palace, witnesses said, reporting at least two Iraqis were killed.
“A significant number” of Marines were killed, and initial reports indicate it may be up to a dozen, a senior defence official said from Washington.
New fighting erupted in the same Ramadi neighbourhood on Wednesday, witnesses said.
In the south, Shiite militiamen attacked coalition troops in five cities Tuesday in battles in a revolt sparked by a U.S. crackdown on their leader, radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Mr. al-Sadr urged Iraqis to rise up against the U.S. occupation and vowed to die rather than be captured by U.S. forces. “America has shown its evil intentions, and the proud Iraqi people cannot accept it,” he said in a statement. “They must defend their rights by any means they see fit.”
Depending on the number of Ramadi deaths, Tuesday's casualties could have brought the total since Sunday as high as about 30 Americans and more than 150 Iraqis killed in the fighting.
Clashes continued overnight between militiamen from Mr. al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army and coalition troops in Kut, Karbala and the mainly Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. At least 12 Iraqis were killed in Kut and four in Baghdad, along with two Iranians caught in the crossfire in Karbala, according to doctors.
The al-Mahdi Army appeared to be in control of Kut and Kufa, occupying government buildings and roaming the streets, as Iraqi police stood aside. Witnesses reported that a British civilian working for a private security company was killed when militiamen took over the company's office in Kut.
Signs were emerging of growing sympathy between Sunni Muslim insurgents and Mr. al-Sadr's Shiite movement. In mainly Sunni Ramadi, portraits of Mr. al-Sadr were posted on government buildings, schools and mosques, along with graffiti praising him for his “heroic deeds” and “valiant uprising against the occupier.”
Iraq's Shiite majority has largely avoided anti-U.S. violence, shunning Mr. al-Sadr's virulent anti-U.S. rhetoric as well as the insurgency led by Sunnis in central Iraq. U.S. officials have expressed concern that Mr. al-Sadr could start co-operating with the Sunni guerrillas.
With fighting intensifying ahead of the June 30 handover of power to an Iraqi government, Donald Rumsfeld,the U.S. defence secretary, said American commanders in Iraq would get additional troops if needed. None has asked so far, he said.
“They will decide what they need, and they will get what they need,” Mr. Rumsfeld said.
On the Fallujah front, Marines pushed toward the centre of the Sunni city on Wednesday. Heavy explosions and machinegun fire were heard in the northern part of the city. During the fighting, insurgents struck a U.S. Abrams tank, wounding three Marines.
Marines waged a fierce battle for hours Tuesday with gunmen holed up in a residential neighbourhood of Fallujah.
The military used a deadly AC-130 gunship to lay down a barrage of fire against guerrillas, and commanders said Marines were holding an area several blocks deep inside the city. At least two Marines were wounded.
U.S. warplanes firing rockets destroyed four houses in Fallujah after nightfall Tuesday, witnesses said. A doctor said 26 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed and 30 wounded in the strike. A total of 44 Iraqis were killed in fighting Tuesday, doctors said.
The dusty, Euphrates River city 60 kilometres west of Baghdad is a stronghold of the anti-U.S. insurgency that sprang up shortly after Saddam Hussein's ouster a year ago.
Marine Major Joseph Clearfield said the Marines fought their way into the city from the north and south on Tuesday, reaching a point just over a couple of kilometres into the city, which is about five kilometres across.
The troops pulled back in the evening, but still occupied buildings in the city, Maj. Clearfield said.
“I think we killed a lot of bad guys,” he said, adding that residents were coming forward with information on insurgents.
Heavy fighting also occurred Tuesday between Marines entrenched in the desert and guerrillas firing from houses on Fallujah's northeast outskirts.
For hours into the night, the sides traded fire, while teams of Marines moved in and out of the neighbourhood, seizing buildings to use as posts and battling gunmen. Helicopters hovered overhead, firing at guerrilla hide-outs.
U.S. authorities launched their offensive against Mr. al-Sadr and his militia after a series of weekend uprisings in Baghdad and cities and towns to the south that took a heavy toll in both American and Iraqi lives.
The fight against the hard-line cleric, who has drawn backing from young and impoverished Shiites with rousing sermons demanding a U.S. withdrawal, sent his black-garbed militiamen against coalition troops Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Fighting in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Kut, Karbala and Amarah and in a northern Baghdad neighbourhood killed 32 Iraqis, coalition military officials said.
On Tuesday evening, gunfire was heard in another part of Baghdad, Sadr City, where fierce battles occurred Sunday, residents said.
The U.S.-led coalition announced an arrest warrant for murder against Mr. al-Sadr on Monday and suggested it would move to capture him soon.
Fearing a U.S. move to arrest him, Mr. al-Sadr on Tuesday left a fortress-like mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where he had been holed up for days, and moved to his main office, in the nearby city of Najaf, his aides said.
Hundreds of militiamen were protecting the office Tuesday, but there was no independent confirmation that Mr. al-Sadr was there.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Mr. al-Sadr and his followers were not representative of a religious cause but of “political gangsterism.”
Excluding the report out of Ramadi on Tuesday evening, at least 614 American troops have died in Iraq since the war began.
