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Fri 9 Apr, 2004 12:50 pm
April 8, 2004
BY LEE KEATH ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq-- Shiite Muslim militants held partial control Thursday over three southern Iraqi cities, while Sunni insurgents killed a U.S. Marine in the battle for Fallujah. In escalating violence, gunmen kidnapped 13 foreigners in a new tactic to pressure U.S. allies in Iraq.
Black-garbed captors with guns, knives and swords threatened their three blindfolded Japanese hostages unless Tokyo removed its troops from Iraq, according to a videotape seen on Arab TV. Japan said it had "no reason" to withdraw.
Eight South Korean missionaries who had been seized by gunmen outside Baghdad were freed or escaped, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said. Two Arab aid workers-- including one who had once lived in Georgia-- also were abducted in a separate incident.
Iraq's interior minister, who leads police and security forces, resigned at the request of top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, to maintain balance between Sunni and Shiite factions on the governing council. It was unclear if the resignation of Nuri al-Badran was connected with the failure of Iraqi police to confront insurgents that coalition forces are battling on two fronts.
Fighting this week in Fallujah, Ramadi and elsewhere has left 36 Americans and at least 459 Iraqis dead. The director of the city's hospital, Taher Al-Issawai, said the figure included more than 280 Iraqis killed since the Marines' siege against insurgents in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, began early Monday.
Gunmen mainly from the militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have full control over the southern cities of Kut, Kufa and the central part of Najaf. Other young Shiites don't seem to be joining the al-Sadr militias, except on a limited basis.
Police in those cities have abandoned their stations or stood aside as the gunmen roam the streets. The performance by police raises questions over a force U.S. leaders are counting on to keep security in the future Iraq. Iraqi security forces have been cooperating with U.S. troops in the siege of Fallujah.
Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said there appeared to be links "at the lowest levels" between the Shiite militia-- which has been battling coalition forces in at least a half-dozen southern cities this week-- and Sunni Arab insurgents who have long fought U.S. troops in central Iraq cities such as Fallujah and Ramadi.
The insurgency has not taken hold in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, and residents of Amarah and Nasiriyah, where fatal clashes took place Tuesday, said those towns were calm with police in the streets. Bands of al-Sadr's militiamen also were in public but without their weapons.
Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from their bases in Kut on Wednesday, but Sanchez said coalition forces would retake it "imminently."
He suggested the presence of hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims in Najaf for the al-Arbaeen holy day this weekend was hampering coalition forces from moving against militiamen there.
"We are very cognizant of the religious ceremonies," he said.
Bremer warned Shiite pilgrims that they faced a "very real" threat of violence if they visit shrines in southern cities where militias have battled coalition forces for several days.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, a moderate, stayed silent on the standoff between al-Sadr and the Americans until Wednesday, when he issued a statement criticizing both sides.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani condemned "methods used by occupation forces in the current escalating situation in Iraq," while in a jab at al-Sadr he denounced disturbances of order and seizures of police and government buildings.
Polish and Bulgarian soldiers drove off Shiites who attacked them near the municipal hall in Karbala south of Baghdad during all-night battles, a Polish spokesman said. Coalition forces killed nine attackers and wounded about 20 others, said Lt. Col. Robert Strzelecki.
The attacks began late Wednesday and continued until nearly sunrise, Strzelecki said. The attackers, loyal to al-Sadr, used machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms during fighting that he described as heavy.
In the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah, Marines fought insurgents for a second day. One Marine was reported killed by the military, although it released no details.
Lt. Col. Greg Olsen said Marines had "made inroads into the city and we are driving the enemy resistance back to a position of disadvantage."
"We're winning every firefight," Olsen said.
Marines battled again around the Abdel-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque, which Capt. James Edge said insurgents were again using as a base despite a six-hour battle Wednesday to uproot them. Helicopters were deployed to support the Marines, he said.
Capping Wednesday's battle, a U.S. helicopter fired a missile at the base of the mosque's minaret, and an F-16 dropped a laser-guided bomb at the wall, allowing Marines to seize the site, Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.
The Islamic Clerics Committee, located next to the mosque, confirmed earlier witness accounts that 40 people were killed, including "entire families." That disputed a U.S. Marine statement that there were no civilian casualties.
In Baghdad, U.S. forces have been battling nightly with al-Mahdi Army militia in their main stronghold in Baghdad, the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. A U.S. helicopter struck the al-Sadr office in the district before dawn Thursday, heavily damaging it and causing an unknown number of wounded.
The kidnappings of foreigners represented a new tactic to pressure their governments, which are allied with the United States. It could affect U.N. workers, journalists, aid workers, Christian missionaries, security personnel and those doing business with the Iraqi government.
The kidnapping of the three Japanese civilians-- a male and a female aid worker and a male journalist-- were a blow to Japan's Iraq policy, which has divided public opinion and raised concern that its troops could be targeted by insurgents or drawn into the fighting.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda called the abductions "unforgivable," but said they did not justify a Japanese withdrawal.
In the videotape, the captives were shown blindfolded and crouching on the floor of a concrete walled room with an iron door. Standing behind them were four masked gunmen in black, holding automatic weapons and RPG launchers.
The gunmen made the Japanese lie on the floor, pointing swords and knives at their chests and throats. The woman's lips could be seen moving as if she was speaking.
One gunman put a knife to the throat of a man, whose eyes widened in panic, and he struggled against his captor. The woman wept and hid her eyes as another gunman tried to pull her hands away from her face and he pressed a knife toward her throat.
Tokyo has sent 530 troops to the southern city of Samawah, part of a planned deployment of 1,100 on a noncombat mission to purify water and help rebuild Iraq-- Japan's first deployment of troops since World War II.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been one of the strongest backers of the U.S.-led invasion, a stance that has raised concern Japanese troops could become targets.
According to Al-Jazeera, the Japanese were taken in southern Iraq by a group identifying itself as the "Mujahedeen Squadrons," which the TV network said gave a three-day ultimatum for Japan to announce it will withdraw its troops or they would be killed.
South Korea Foreign Ministry reported that all eight captives from that country were free. The evangelical Christians had left in two cars on April 5 from Amman, Jordan, when they were seized by gunmen about 155 miles east of Baghdad, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted one of the former captives, Kim Sang Mik, as saying.
Earlier this week, two South Korean aid workers were briefly detained by Shiites in a gunbattle with Italian peacekeepers. They were released unharmed.
Israeli media reported two Arab residents of Jerusalem-- including one with a U.S. driver's license from the state of Georgia who works for an American aid agency-- were kidnapped Thursday by insurgents in Iraq.
An Iranian TV report, rebroadcast in Israel, showed men identifying themselves as aid workers Nabil Razouk, 30, and Ahmed Yassin Tikati, 33.
The report showed photos of their documents, which included Razouk's Georgia driver's license and an Israeli driver's license.
His uncle, Anton, told the AP his nephew was an Israeli citizen with an Israeli passport who was working for the U.S. Agency for International Development. An Arab Christian, Razouk lives in east Jerusalem and is married to a Czech, Anton Razouk said.
"I am very worried. I pray for his safety," he said.
"I want to tell the Iraqis he is not a spy, not for America and not for Israel," he said. "He is an Arab, a member of the Arab nation, a Palestinian like me living in Jerusalem under Israeli occupation."
Copyright 2004 Associated Press.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iraq08.html
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