BAGHDAD, Iraq – U.S. soldiers battled insurgents northeast of Baghdad on Monday in clashes that killed more than 50 people. Some guerrillas were said ready to “fight to the death” in Fallujah, where American forces struggled to clear pockets of resistance.
At least five suicide car bombers targeted American troops elsewhere in volatile Sunni Muslim areas north and west of the capital Monday, wounding at least nine Americans. Three of those bombings occurred nearly simultaneously in locations between Fallujah and the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, the U.S. command said.
Pressing their own offensive in central and northern Iraq, insurgents attacked police stations, Iraqi security forces, U.S. military convoys and oil installations across a wide area of the Sunni heartland.
In a speech found Monday on the Internet, a speaker said to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country’s most feared terror leader, called on his followers to “shower” the Americans “with rockets and mortars” because U.S. forces were spread too thin as they seek to “finish off Islam in Fallujah.”
The number of U.S. troops wounded from the week-long offensive stands at 320, though 134 have returned to duty. U.S. officials estimated more than 1,200 insurgents have been killed.
“They were ready to fight to the death,” said Marine Lance Cpl. Travis Schafer, 20, a rifleman recovering in a German hospital. His hand had been hit by shrapnel after a rocket-propelled grenade exploded 50 feet from him.
“It’s house-to-house fighting, rooftop-to-rooftop,” said the Puyallup resident, who was wounded Nov. 9, his first day in Fallujah.
“Even from mosques they were firing – from all over the place,” said Schafer, with the 1st U.S. Marine Regiment. “It seemed like they have a pretty unlimited amount of (rocket-propelled grenades) and mortars. They seemed to fling those about wildly.”
The worst reported fighting Monday took place about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad after assaults, at almost the same time, on police stations in Baqouba and its twin city, Buhriz.
Gunmen abducted police Col. Qassim Mohammed, took him to the Buhriz police station and threatened to kill him if police didn’t surrender the station. When police refused, the gunmen tied the colonel’s hands behind his back and shot him dead.
U.S. and Iraqi troops rushed to the scene, setting off a gunbattle that killed 26 insurgents and five other Iraqi police, Iraqi officials said.
At the same time, insurgents attacked a police station in Baqouba and seized another building. U.S. aircraft dropped two 500-pound bombs before the end of the fighting, in which four American soldiers were wounded, the U.S. command said.
During the fighting, U.S. troops came under fire from a mosque, the U.S. military said. Iraqi security stormed the mosque and found rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds and other weapons and ammunition, the statement said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
