Associated Press
October 2, 2004
SAMARRA, Iraq —
U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major assault Friday to regain control of the
insurgent stronghold of Samarra, trading gunfire with rebel fighters as they
pushed toward the city center. The United States said 96 insurgents were
killed.
Troops of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, Iraqi National Guard
and Iraqi Army moved into Samarra after midnight in a bid to secure government
and police buildings in the city 60 miles north of Baghdad. As they advanced,
insurgents attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, a military
statement said.
Master Sgt. Robert Powell, a spokesman for the 1st
Infantry Division, said 96 insurgents were believed killed during Friday's
clashes. Dr. Khalid Ahmed said at least 80 bodies and more than 100 wounded
were brought to Samarra General Hospital, but it was not immediately clear how
many of them were insurgents. The hospital was running out of bandages, oxygen
and other supplies, Ahmed said.
One American soldier was killed and
four were wounded, Po well sai
It was not known if the push into Samarra
represented the start of a larger campaign to retake several cities that
insurgents have rendered "no-go" zones for U.S. and Iraqi troops. Officials
have said that recapturing those cities is key before nationwide elections
scheduled for the end of January.
The offensive came a day after a
string of bombings across the country that killed at least 51 people, including
35 children in a series of blasts as U.S. troops handed out candy at a
government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage plant in Baghdad.
Residents cowered in their homes as tanks and warplanes pounded Samarra.
The sound of shelling mixed with the crackle of automatic gunfire continued into
the morning. At least three houses were flattened and dozens of cars charred,
residents said.
"We are terrified by the violent approach used by the
Americans to subdue the city," said Mahmoud Saleh, a 33-year-old civil servant.
"My wife and children are scared to death a nd they have not being able to sleep
since last night. I hope that the fighting ends as soon as possible."
During the push, soldiers of the 1st Infantry Division rescued a
kidnapped Turkish construction worker who was being held in the city. He was
identified as Yahlin Kaya, an employee of the 77 Construction Company in
Samarra.
U.S. and Iraqi forces blocked the roads into the city to
prevent insurgents from moving in and out, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, another
spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.
As Iraqi forces secured the
Samarra bridge, American soldiers observed insurgents in speedboats loading
ordnance on the banks of the Tigris River, the military statement said.
Soldiers fired warning shots and the insurgents returned fire, prompting U.S.
forces to destroy the boats, killing their occupants, the statement said.
Smoke was seen rising from the area around the Imam Ali al-Hadi and Imam
Hassan al-Askari shrine, raising fears for one of the holiest sites for Shiite
Muslims. O'Brien said the shrine was not damaged and Iraqi forces had secured
the site.
"Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces will do
everything possible to protect the valuable site from damage," he said.
Along with U.S. troops, soldiers from the 202nd Iraqi National Guard
Battalion and 7th Iraqi Army Battalion were taking part in the operation. Such
formations would normally involve several thousand troops.
Water and
electricity services were cut off, and troops ordered residents to stay off the
streets as they moved from house to house in search of insurgents. A 7 p.m. to
7 a.m. curfew was announced.
The offensive came in response to
"repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces" against Iraqi and
coalition forces, the military said in a statement. Its aim was to "facilitate
orderly government processes, kill or capture anti-Iraqi forces and set the
conditions to proceed with infrastructure and quality of life improvements."
"Unimpeded access throughout the cit y for Iraqi security forces and
multinational forces is non-negotiable," the statement said.
The
military said insurgent attacks and acts of intimidation against the people of
Samarra had undermined the security situation in the city, regarded as one of
the top three rebel strongholds in Iraq, along with Fallujah and the Baghdad
slum known as Sadr City.
The Americans returned briefly on Sept. 9
under a peace deal brokered by tribal leaders under which U.S. forces agreed to
provide millions of dollars in reconstruction funds in exchange for an end to
attacks on American and Iraqi troops.
In recent weeks, however, the
city witnessed sporadic clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents.
Masked gunmen carrying the flag of Iraq's most feared terror group,
Tawhid and Jihad, surfaced in force in Samarra on Tuesday, staging a defiant
drive through the streets.
Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for bloody attacks in
B aghdad on Thursday, according to a statement posted on a militant Web site.
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, and it was
unclear whether the three "heroic operations" it cites -- attacks on a
government complex and "a convoy of invading forces" -- included the bombs that
killed the children.
Some of the children, who are near the end of a
nationwide school vacation, said they were attracted to the neighborhood
celebration by American soldiers handing out candy.
"The Americans
called us. They told us: 'Come here, come here,' asking us if we wanted
sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel
Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his
body.
Deputy Interior Minister Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said intense
military pressure on insurgents holed up in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, was
forcing them to turn their bombs on the capital. He said the day's attacks were
"definitely coordinated."
"They are killing citizens and spreading
horror. They have no aims except killing as many Iraqis as they can," Kamal
told The Associated Press.
Earlier, a suicide attacker detonated a
vehicle packed with explosives in front of a government complex in the Abu
Ghraib area, on the western outskirts of Baghdad. The bombing killed a U.S.
soldier and two Iraqi policeman and wounded more than 60 people, including three
American soldiers.
U.S. forces guard the compound, which houses the
mayor's office, a police station and other buildings, police 1st Lt. Ahmed
Jawad said.
In the northern city of Tal Afar on Thursday, a car bomb
targeting the police chief killed at least four people and wounded 19, including
five policemen, police and hospital officials said. The police chief escaped
unharmed.