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U.S. kills 16 Bad Boyz in Kufa
EFLU.S. soldiers killed 16 suspected insurgents early Sunday and found a large cache of weapons at a mosque during an operation in the city of Kufa, a stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia, military officials said. Preceded by a heavy artillery barrage, more than 20 tanks, armored personnel carriers and about 600 troops entered the darkened city in south-central Iraq after leaving their base in nearby Najaf late Saturday. The soldiers left just before dawn, a few hours after they entered the city. CNNâs Jane Arraf, reporting from an armored personnel carrier of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, described the sound of the vehicles rolling through the streets as "intimidating." Aided by Iraqi civil defense forces, troops found AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition. Some of the weapons were stashed in the mosqueâs minaret. The operation marked the first time U.S. troops had entered Kufa since the insurgency began several weeks ago. Officials said it was not aimed at capturing al-Sadr but at denying the Mehdi Army a safe haven in Kufa. Another weapons search took place Sunday across the Euphrates River to the east, at a palace that once belonged to deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb Sunday ripped through an Iraqi police car, killing one police officer and wounding two others in the southern city of Basra, according to Col. Khasim Ahmed, an Iraqi police official. Earlier, a mortar landed in a house in Basra, killing one civilian and wounding four, two of them critically, Ahmed said. Iran acknowledged it had lines of communication with Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, whose home was raided Thursday by Iraqi authorities. But Tehran denied that it had received classified information from Chalabi about U.S. troops in the region. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday that dozens of people killed in a U.S. attack in the Iraqi desert early Wednesday were attending a high-level meeting of foreign fighters, not a wedding. Kimmitt said six women were among the dead, but he said there was no evidence any children died in the raid near the Syrian border. Coalition officials have said as many as 40 people were killed. Posted by: Zenster 2004-05-23 |
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