Los Angeles Times
September 28, 2004
BAGHDAD —
U.S. military leaders in Iraq stepped up their campaign today to rout out
insurgents, launching an airstrike in a restive slum of the nation's capital and
killing 10 Iraqis, according to U.S. and hospital officials.
The use of
warplanes to bomb targets in Shiite Muslim-dominated neighborhoods of Baghdad's
Sadr City underscored the new resolve with which U.S. forces battle against
insurgents. Such airstrikes have become increasingly commonplace in Sadr City,
Fallouja and other regions where anti-American militants still control all or
parts of the city.
The strikes also raise questions about whether a
fragile peace agreement with forces loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr
will hold. Tensions have been rising in recent days between Sadr's followers
and U.S. forces in Sadr City and in the holy city of Najaf, where the two sides
ended a bloody standoff in August.
Insurgents today also escalated their
attacks against U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces, killing four Iraqi
Nation al Guard members with a car bomb in Mosul.
Near Fallouja, a
suicide attacker killed three more Iraqi guard members at a security checkpoint,
police officials told the Associated Press.
And in Balad, north of
Baghdad, a 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed Sunday morning when
insurgents opened fire on his patrol, which was responding to a traffic accident
that had killed another U.S. solider earlier that morning.
With few
signs that the violence will end, U.S. military officials have been planning to
accelerate efforts in coming months to crack down on insurgents. They hope to
restore peace before national elections can take place, which are scheduled for
January.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that a
"major thrust" of U.S. efforts in Iraq soon will be to eliminate so-called
"no-go" areas, where insurgents still reign. The air attack in Sadr City early
Monday was part of that new effort.
U.S. officials said they killed
four insurgents and destroy ed several enemy positions with a "precision strike"
on "positively identified targets." Witnesses said the attacks began about 1
a.m. and lasted several hours.
"We were terrified because the strikes
were random," said Majeed Minshed, 23, a Sadr City resident. "By the time it
was over, we did not believe we were still alive." Sabah Abaas, an emergency
room medical assistant at Jawader Hospital, reported 10 fatalities and 71
injuries, including some women and children.
U.S. officials called
reports of civilian casualties "suspect," but said they would investigate the
claims. They suggested civilian deaths may have been caused by insurgents
responding to the U.S. attack by firing four mortars at an American base
shortly after the air strike began. Three of the mortars missed and landed
outside of the base. One civilian vehicle was destroyed, military officials
said.
"The enemy shows no concern for the Iraqi people, " said U.S.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Hutton.
Rising civilian d eaths have put
U.S. officials on the defensive. According to Iraqi Health Ministry officials,
nearly 3,200 Iraqi civilians have died since April in terrorist attacks and
clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents.
U.S. officials, however,
insist that insurgents have exaggerated the toll. A senior military official
called reports of civilian deaths in Fallouja "propaganda" and suggested that
local hospitals have been infiltrated by insurgent forces.
"We have seen
pictures (of injured people) but we can't authenticate that the individuals in
the hospital are in the hospital because of (a U.S.) attack that day," the
official said.
In Mosul today, insurgents again used a car bomb to
target a passing convoy of Iraqi guards. In September alone, 34 car bombs have
been detonated, the highest monthly number on record, officials said.
After the initial explosion, insurgents opened fire on the seven-vehicle convoy
with machine guns, officials said.
In Baqubah, another insurgent st
ronghold, a roadside bomb apparently intended for a U.S. military convoy
exploded prematurely on Sunday, killing four civilians, according to the
Associated Press.
Elsewhere, a kidnapped Iranian diplomat, Faridoun
Jihani, was freed today, Iranian Embassy officials said in a statement. Jihani,
who worked in the Iranian consul in Karbala, was abducted last month while
driving between Baghdad and Karbala.
And Jordan King Abdullah II said
that two Italian aide workers who were abducted and reported killed are, in
fact, still alive. Negotiations continue for their release, he said.
An
estimated 140 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq, including British
businessman Kenneth Bigley, whose fate remains unclear. His family pleaded
again today for his safe release, distributing leaflets and making radio appeals
in Iraq.
Two of his American coworkers, Eugene "Jack" Armstrong and
Jack Hensley, were beheaded. The men were believed to have been abducted by the
terrorist group Tawhid and Ji had, led by Abu Musab Zarqawi.
A Times
special correspondent in Sadr City contributed to this report.