An explosion leveled a building in Baghdad as US troops raided it yesterday, wounding at least one US soldier and several Iraqis. West of the capital, heavy fighting broke out in Fallujah despite attempts to extend a ceasefire.
In the south, US troops rolled into a base in Najaf to replace Spanish forces who are withdrawing and to increase pressure on the militia of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The deployment brings the Americans about 6km away from holy sites at the heart of the city.
PHOTO: REUTERS
US commanders have said they will not go near the holy shrines in the city's ancient center, a move that would spark widespread outrage among Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority.
The US military will take over security duties throughout Najaf province and the neighboring province of Qadisiyah after the withdrawal of Spanish, Dominican and Honduran forces this month, said a Polish spokesman, whose country's forces lead multinational peacekeepers in the area.
The extension of US forces would be a major reversal of American efforts to hand security duties in the south to its allies. But the coalition has been frayed by the Spanish-led pullout and the eruption of fighting in the previously more peaceful south.
The Baghdad explosion occurred when US troops broke into a shop on the ground floor of a building in the northern Waziriya district. Moments afterward, the blast went off, leveling the front half of the one-story building and setting ablaze four Humvees parked outside.
A female American soldier was seen being taken away by troops, her face and chest severely burned. Witnesses reported seeing up to 10 US soldiers being loaded into ambulances. A US military spokesman confirmed Humvees were destroyed in the blast, but could not confirm US casualties.
Several Iraqis were pulled out of the building's rubble.
Later, teenagers dragged away one of the burnt out Humvees, stripped it of equipment then set it ablaze again with fuel. Some were seen afterward, waving US weapons.
"This is for the madman Bush, for the madman Bremer," said one youth, waving a rifle and referring to US President George W. Bush and the top American administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
Residents differed over what was in the targeted building. Some said it held a perfume factory, others said it was once a scrap metal workshop that repaired weapons and recycled old ammunition.
The fighting in Fallujah yesterday sent two large palls of heavy black smoke over the northern Jolan district, a poor neighborhood thought to have a large concentration of Sunni insurgents. Explosions rang out, along with the sound of mortars and heavy machine guns.
The fighting came a day after US officials announced that a fragile ceasefire would be extended for two days and that political efforts at a resolution would continue, backing off warnings earlier this week that US Marines could launch a full-fledged offensive in the city within days.
As part of the extended ceasefire, Marines are to begin joint patrols in Fallujah alongside Iraqi security forces -- a measure aimed at showing some degree of control in the city without launching a new assault.
Marines began training Iraqi security forces yesterday to join them on patrols, which are due to start by Thursday.
The move carries a risk: There was little guarantee that guerrillas -- who Marines say have not abided by other parts of past negotiated agreements -- will not attack the patrols.
Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Brennan Byrne said the foot patrols would be backed by armor and air support. He said patrols coming under fire wouldn't necessarily spark a renewal of a general Marine offensive.
"We're perfectly happy to move down the street, destroy a bad guy over here and just continue on with the patrol," he said.
In the south, about 200 troops and Military Police rolled into the Spanish base in Najaf yesterday morning. The move deploys US troops within the Najaf urban area for the first time since a large force massed outside the city earlier this month to put down the al-Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The base compound was pockmarked with shells and shrapnel from earlier attacks. The golden domes of the Shiite shrines at Najaf's center -- a no-go zone for the Americans -- were visible from inside the compound.
Overnight, al-Sadr's forces shelled the base with 21 mortars, and one Salvadoran soldier was wounded, said Colonel Pat White, commander of the US 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, which moved into the base.
Spanish troops at the base are due to leave within days, and the Americans moved in to ensure al-Sadr militiamen did not overrun the site.
"We are going in to allow the Spanish troops to leave safely and so that the compound is not left empty," said White, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment. "We don't want al-Sadr's militia to take it over. It is not an offensive operation."
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