Cities on the edge
Fallujah, Najaf, and Sadr City remain extremely dangerous for US troops
Fearing that full-scale attacks by US troops surrounding the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Najaf could
trigger even more riots and revolts across the country, the
Boston Herald reports that US President George Bush "will scramble" this week to end the standoffs in both cities.
The situation in both cities remains tense, reports the
BBC. US commanders in Iraq have reportedly
postponed a major offensive against insurgents in the volatile Sunni-triangle city, Fallujah. Instead, US troops will begin patrols with Iraqi security forces early this week, under "a new plan agreed between US forces and Iraqi negotiators."
Agence France-Presse reports that the truce "appears to have
weakened the Iraqi fighters," while also creating divisions in the Sunni community. The
BBC reports that elders in Fallujah have written to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to ask for his help to "bolster the fragile truce."
Despite the talk of a truce,
Al Jazeera reports that US helicopters
attacked positions in the city on Monday after they were attacked.
Eight Iraqi fighters were killed and six US Marines were wounded in the fierce firefight.
The
BBC also reports that, now that major fighting has subsided in Fallujah, eyewitness accounts are emerging, and both sides are accusing each other of atrocities. Europeans working for humanitarian organizations, and an Iraqi doctor working for Doctors in Iraq, another humanitarian organization, say
US snipers fired at ambulances and civilians in the city. In one case two workers in an ambulance were shot. Over the next two days other workers from their team tried to reach the ambulance to rescue the men, but were forced back by warning shots. The wounded men eventually bled to death. In all the cases outlined by the
BBC, aid workers said it was US troops firing at them.
US military commanders defended their actions.
Three days into the siege, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top commander of US forces in Iraq, denied that troops were firing on ambulances. "If we're shooting vehicles, it's because those vehicles have shot at us," he said. US officials have said that on one occasion, an insurgent gunman was seen fleeing in an ambulance, and that weapons have been found in an aid convoy west of the city.
The situation appears even more tense in Najaf. Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq, said in an interview Sunday with
Al Jazeera that militants were stockpiling weapons and ammunition in mosques, shrines and schools in the city. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Mr. Bremer says an "
explosive situation" has been developing in Najaf. The
Independent reports that a top US general has said his troops will enter parts of the city of Najaf to "
crush the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr" but will avoid the city's holy sites.
"We're going to drive this guy [Mr. Sadr] into the dirt," said Brigadier General Mark Hertling, the deputy commander of the 1st Armoured Division. "Either he tells his militia to put down their arms, form a political party and fight with ideas not guns, or he's going to find a lot of them killed."
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that US troops
moved into a base about three miles from the shrines in Najaf, in order to replace departing Spanish soldiers. Sunday night militants fired more than 20 mortar rounds into the base, wounding at least one Salvadoran soldier. The
Scotsman reports on how Sadr has taken effective control of Najaf, even as the vast majority of its residents wish he would just go away.
Newsweek reports on another area of Iraq that's "
as bad as it gets" for US troops when it comes to urban warfare – the Baghdad slum of Sadr City. The magazine also looks at the "human cost" for US troops who patrol Sadr City, and other hot spots in Iraq, often
without the equipment and support they need to protect themselves.
A breakdown of the casualty figures suggests that many US deaths and wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur. According to an unofficial study by a defense consultant that is now circulating through the Army, of a total of 789 Coalition deaths as of April 15 (686 of them Americans), 142 were killed by land mines or improvised explosive devices, while 48 others died in rocket-propelled-grenade attacks. Almost all those soldiers were killed while in unprotected vehicles, which means that perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had stronger armor around them, the study suggested. Thousands more who were unprotected have suffered grievous wounds, such as the loss of limbs.
Outlook India, an Indian news site, reports that UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who is helping draft an Iraqi interim government, Sunday urged United States to "
tread carefully" and not storm into Fallujah or Najaf. "Sending the tanks rolling into a place like this . . . is not the right thing to do," Brahimi said on
ABC News' "This Week" program. "I think the Americans know that extremely well now." Mr. Brahimi said US strikes on Fallujah would also play into the hands of rebels. "When you surround a city, you bomb the city, when people cannot go to the hospital, what name do you have for that?" he asked. "This is exactly what (the insurgents) want you to do, to alienate more people."
The
BBC reports that the Bush administration is listening to Brahimi.
Only months ago the Bush administration would not have taken much notice of a UN diplomat's comments but they need Mr Brahimi to help try to smooth the handover of power to an Iraqi entity, so his views count, says the
BBC's Justin Webb in Washington. Not every one wants the US to listen to Brahimi.
Agence France-Press reports that Sunday Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi said Brahimi is
too controversial to bring together the country's competing political groups. Mr. Chalabi may also have been reacting to a report in
The Washington Post that said Brahimi and the US will
work to "sideline" many Iraqi politicians, with Chalabi being at the "top of the list" of those who will be removed.
New York Times columnist William Safire
also attacked Brahimi, in particular for his remark on French radio that "the great poison in the region is this Israeli policy of domination and the suffering imposed on the Palestinians," as well as the "equally unjust support of the United States for this policy." Despite rebukes from both his boss at the UN, Kofi Annan, and Israeli leaders, Brahimi
stood by his remarks, saying they were not opinion, but "fact."
Also...
•
Many things wicked this way come (
Daily Star, Lebanon)
•
Egyptian-American director sets out to determine Al Jazeera's fairness (
Daily Star, Lebanon)
•
For Japanese hostages, release only adds to stress (
The New York Times)
•
Security firms in search of pros for jobs in Iraq (
Washington Times)
•
Shots fired at Bulgarian President in Iraq (
Associated Press)
• Feedback appreciated. E-mail
Tom Regan
.
|
RSS feed