Guerrillas have attacked Iraqi and U.S. forces in Baghdad in daylight, hours after a top U.S. general conceded it was too early to say if a big Falluja offensive had broken the backbone of the insurgency. A dawn assault on Saturday with rocket-propelled grenades on a police station in the Sunni district of Aadhamiya killed at least three officers -- a day after Iraq's U.S.-backed National Guard raided a mosque revered by the Sunni Muslim minority. Elsewhere, a Polish woman freed by kidnappers in Iraq and flown to Warsaw said she was treated well, raising hopes for other foreign hostages after a week in which the only other woman held captive, a British aid worker, was thought to have been killed.
In Aadhamiya, U.S. tanks and helicopters helped beat off the insurgents after a three-hour battle near the Abu Hanifa mosque, where four worshippers were killed and 17 arrested on Friday. A U.S. soldier was killed and nine wounded when their patrol was caught in an ambush in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Thick columns of black smoke rose over Aadhamiya. Apache helicopters buzzed overhead. Tanks rolled through the streets. An armoured convoy carried away two wrecked U.S. vehicles. The police compound was badly damaged and cratered by bullet holes. In the western Amriya district, gunmen in cars opened fire on a National Guard unit. A Guard at the scene said seven of the assailants were killed and seven passers-by wounded. |