US forces killed dozens of Iraqi fighters near Najaf overnight, hours after Washington issued an ultimatum to a radical cleric to clear his militia from mosques in the holy city.
Local television in Najaf said wounded people were dying for lack of blood supplies and issued an urgent appeal for donors.
The clashes were the deadliest since Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia launched a brief revolt against the US-led occupation three weeks ago. They may mark a new phase in American efforts to dislodge him from Najaf, where he has taken refuge among some of the holiest shrines of Shiite Islam.
Forty-three militiamen were killed, a US official said. An AC-130 gunship -- a massive plane that spews cannon fire across wide areas -- destroyed an anti-aircraft system, she added.
Locals said aircraft had destroyed a militia checkpoint outside Kufa, 10km from Najaf, after a firefight. Staff at two nearby hospitals counted at least 23 dead and 34 wounded. Some of the casualties did not appear to be guerrillas.
As they prepared to bury the dead in the afternoon, local people said they were anxious about what might happen next.
Adding to the US burden, Spanish troops quit Najaf as part of a withdrawal decided by the new government in Madrid, where opposition to the occupation runs high. American troops have been forced to take their place.
In a second flashpoint, the Sunni Muslim town of Fallujah, local police took to the streets in force yesterday as a deadline expired for guerrillas to hand in heavy weapons.
The US Marines, who have besieged the town for three weeks, had said they would join police on patrols as early as yesterday. But they did not, and Iraqi police said there would be talks today on the joint patrols.
Hundreds of Iraqis have died in Fallujah, along with many Americans, in one of the bloodiest conflicts in a year.
Washington is struggling to douse these twin challenges to the new order in Baghdad without inflaming anger at civilian casualties before the US authority hands formal sovereignty back to an appointed Iraqi government on June 30.
Najaf and Fallujah have provided acid tests among Iraq's two main Muslim communities.
The long oppressed Shiite majority broadly welcomed the US invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. But impatience with disruption to daily life has angered many -- though support for Sadr's armed response has been mixed.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday that US forces would have to maintain considerable powers after the handover, "which in some ways infringes on what some would call full sovereignty."
In Fallujah, US commanders say they face up to 2,000 fighters -- some diehard Saddam loyalists, others trying to reassert Sunni dominance of Iraq, and maybe about 200 foreign Islamic radicals, some possibly linked to al-Qaeda.
The Americans are in no hurry to spark an all-out confrontation in the town, 50km west of Baghdad, but hold out little hope the insurgents will surrender their arms.
Witnesses said US forces had fought guerrillas beside a highway north of Fallujah for around an hour early yesterday.
On Monday, Marines called in air strikes after skirmishes around a mosque left eight insurgents and a soldier dead.
Civilian casualties and the sight of refugees fleeing the city of 300,000 have dismayed many Iraqis. The US offensive began in response to the murder of four American contractors.
Also See Story:
Iraqi government must give troops free hand: Powell
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about 1,900 as
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS