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Rebels cheer as Allied fuel convoy burns
IRAQI gunmen danced over the bodies of their victims near Baghdad yesterday in a gruesome celebration after an attack on a fuel convoy. As the vehicles burned, one rebel battered a corpse with a tyre jack while another stole a dead manâs boots and held them up in triumph. They had attacked the US fuel convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and guns in a strike that left up to nine men dead and a pall of black smoke hanging in the sky. One US soldier was reported killed. Witnesses saw bodies burning inside the vehicles, which included military machines and tankers. The attack took place near the suburb of Abu Ghraib, a Sunni stronghold that has become the base for a series of guerilla raids on Westerners and their vehicles. After the strike, the gunman celebrated their success with relish. One man was pictured beating a body, while another danced before the cameras waving a boot in each hand. The boots were stolen from the dead driver of a destroyed fuel tanker. The roads near Abu Ghraib are now fraught with the danger of ambush. Reports yesterday said gangs of armed youths were roaming the district, many carrying rocket propelled grenades and guns. A second US soldier was killed in an attack using bombs and small arms at Camp Cook, a US base in northern Baghdad, the military said. In Fallujah, seat of the latest eruption in fighting, US marines waited outside the narrow streets of the centre ready to begin a street-by-street assault to retake it. US forces called a 90-minute truce yesterday to allow the dead to be buried in the al-Somoud football stadium and for residents, excepting men of military age, to leave. For hours later, as the marines dug in around Fallujah, there was sporadic shooting in the city that for some Iraqis has become a symbol of defiance. One marine, Major Larry Kaifesh, said: "It is hard to differentiate between people who are insurgents or civilians. It is hard to get an honest picture. You just have to go with your gut feeling." In the southern city of Kut, US troops claimed to have regained control from followers of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Ukrainian troops had abandoned the city earlier in the week. A US helicopter struck al-Sadrâs main office in Kut, killing two inside, witnesses said. There were other clashes at Baquba, north of Baghdad, where Sunni and Shia Muslims from the mixed-population town joined in attacks on US forces. In Basra, where British forces faced no serious violent attacks, Sunni and Shia Muslims prayed together in a display of unity. Some 15 Iraqis were thought to have been killed in the Shia shrine town of Kerbala. They were shot in clashes with Polish and Bulgarian troops as thousands of pilgrims celebrated a religious festival. In Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused to withdraw the countryâs troops from Iraq despite death threats against three civilians held hostage by rebels. The families of the three have begged Tokyo to give in to the kidnappers and pull its soldiers out. But Mr Koizumi refused to bow to what he called "the despicable threat of terrorists". Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw conceded that the British and Americans were facing a full-scale armed insurgency in Iraq. Mr Straw broke a lengthy official silence to admit the situation was far worse than he had expected and that the "vast majority" of Iraqis were opposed to the allied occupation. Posted by: tipper 2004-04-11 |
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