BAGHDAD, Iraq – Eight U.S. Marines were killed in two separate incidents in Iraq’s Anbar province, a vast region encompassing the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, the military said today.
It was unknown whether the deaths Sunday were connected to heavy fighting in Fallujah. American warplanes pounded the city with missiles as insurgents fought running battles with coalition forces.
On Sunday, the military reported the death of another U.S. Marine in Anbar.
The eight members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died while conducting “security and stabilization operations” in Anbar, the military said in a statement.
The statement gave no other details about the deaths, saying the release of more information could place U.S. personnel at risk.
Fallujah resident Abdullah Ahmed said the fighting started after U.S. soldiers brought 700-800 men into the city to clear rubble from damage caused by November’s offensive.
“The clashes started as soon as the young men entered the city,” Ahmed said. “The American troops were surprised and decided to launch military operations.”
Meanwhile, Iraq’s postwar political hopefuls continued jostling for position ahead of Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, the first such polls to be held since Saddam Hussein’s overthrow.
Two moderate, mainly Sunni Muslim parties announced they would field slates for the polls, indicating an apparent strengthening of support for the vote among the religious minority, despite calls from some Sunni politicians for a boycott.
Sunnis traditionally have enjoyed significant privilege in Iraq, but have lost their political ascendancy since Hussein’s fall. The country’s majority Shiites – numbering 60 percent of the population – are expected to exploit their weight of numbers and dominate the post-election legislature.
“They (the Sunnis) realized that there was no chance for postponing and that it’s better to participate,” said Nehro Mohammed Abdul-Karim Kasnazan, a leader of the Coalition of Iraqi National Unity, which is fielding a 275-member slate for the polls.
The Constitutional Monarchy Movement, a moderate Sunni-dominated group seeking the restoration of a constitutional monarchy, also announced a list of 275 election candidates. The slate is headed by Sharif Ali, a cousin of Iraq’s last king – who was killed in a 1958 military coup, and includes Kurds and Shiites.
A former Governing Council member, Naseer al-Chadarchi, announced that his Patriotic and Democratic Party, another moderate Sunni fringe movement, would field at least 40 candidates, including Shiites from southern Iraq, according to aide Omar al-Ma’arouf.
“Despite the party’s insistence on postponing the elections, it will participate with a separate list” of candidates, al-Ma’arouf said.
Four decapitated bodies in civilian clothes were found south of Baghdad and their identities were unclear, police said. The victims, believed to be Iraqis, were found in Haswa, about 25 miles south of the capital.
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