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| Hard boyz counter-attack in Sunni Triangle areas |
| 2004-11-11 |
| As US troops hunted rebels in Fallujah, rebels hit back with a rampage in Mosul and a car bomb that killed 17 people and wounded at least 20 in Baghdad. Marines fired mortar barrages against elusive guerrillas in Fallujah's Jolan district as tanks squeezed down alleys to eliminate resistance on the third full day of the offensive. Impacts from relentless mortar blasts and sporadic artillery fire blanketed parts of the city with black smoke as rebels responded with occasional mortar rounds and sniper fire. US officers said Marine Corps and army units had gained a large presence throughout Fallujah but were still meeting some fire from Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign militants. Tanks had punched through Jolan to the Euphrates river and were now chasing down remaining rebels to consolidate control over the city 50km west of Baghdad. But while US-led troops appeared to gain the upper hand in Fallujah, insurgents in the northern city of Mosul set police stations ablaze, stole weapons and roamed the streets. Residents said Iraq's third largest city seemed to slide out of control as grenade blasts and gunfire rang through empty streets and smoke billowed from two burning police stations. Rebels attacked Iraqi national guards controlling a bridge in the city centre, killing five of them, witnesses said. A cameraman for Reuters filmed gunmen raiding weapons and flak jackets from a police station before setting it on fire. "It's crazy, really, really crazy," said Abdallah Fathi, a resident who witnessed the police station attack. A Reuters photographer was shot in the leg and taken to hospital. Doctors said one civilian had been killed and at least 25 wounded in the past two days of fighting. Violence has worsened in Mosul, a strongly nationalist city of three million people, over the past year, but residents said the chaos of the past two days had broken new ground. "Yesterday, the city felt like hell, today it could be the same or worse," Fathi said. As US forces battle to suppress insurgents in Fallujah, rebels have staged attacks in the Sunni towns and cities of Samarra, Baiji, Baquba, Tikrit, Ramadi and parts of Baghdad. A car bomb killed seven people and wounded 18 in the Iraqi capital, hospital officials said. A Reuters reporter saw four charred bodies in burned-out cars after the explosion near a police patrol in Nasr Square. The bomb devastated a nearby building and sent black smoke billowing skywards. Twisted metal and shards of glass littered the commercial Saadoun Street district as police cars rushed to the scene. Kirkuk's provincial governor escaped unhurt when a car bomb blew up near his convoy in the northern city, wounding 16 people, police and hospital officials said. In Fallujah, residents said the stench of decomposing bodies hung over the battered city, power and water supplies had been cut for five days and food was running out for thousands of civilians trapped in their homes by the fighting. With the offensive in its third full day, a death threat hung over three of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's relatives kidnapped by Islamist militants. A militant group has threatened to behead Allawi's 75-year- old cousin Ghazi and two women relatives unless he calls off the assault. The government has said its policy will not change. A US military spokesman said yesterday US-led forces had taken 70 per cent of Fallujah, but did not have full control. "(We) still need to go house to house in that area to ensure there aren't any anti-Iraqi forces left," he said. The Iraqi military governor in Fallujah said his men had found "slaughterhouses" where militants had held and killed hostages, along with records of victims. But Major-General Abdul-Qader Jassim told reporters he could not say if the evidence offered any clues to the fate of at least nine foreign hostages still missing. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #3 shot too low on the Rooters agents too... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-11-11 4:32:27 PM |
| #2 Soundering like Chester maybe on to something. Perhaps the big pivot to the west is on. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-11 4:19:49 PM |
| #1 Atta boys! Fight back against those mean, nasty Americans by killing Iraqis! That'll show them! |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-11-11 3:08:50 PM |