| U.S. fights uniformed insurgents near Syrian border
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 54 Iraqis were killed and another 96 wounded Wednesday in six separate bombings -- including a suicide attack by a man with explosives hidden under his clothing that killed 20 civilians lined up to join the Iraqi Army, Iraqi officials said.
That attack -- in the town of Hawija, west of Kirkuk and about 130 miles north of Baghdad -- also wounded 30 Iraqis, according to Iraqi Army Lt. Col. Khalil al-Zawbai.
A car bombing in Tikrit -- the hometown of Saddam Hussein -- killed 30 Iraqis and wounded another 40, Iraqi officials said. That explosion happened at 6:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. EDT) at a busy intersection, near where a crowd of Iraqi workers gather each morning to be picked up for day labour, Tikrit officials said.
There were three car bombings in Baghdad, including an attack outside a police station in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Dora that killed three Iraqis and wounded eight -- some police officers -- and a car bombing in the eastern neighbourhood of New Baghdad that wounded three Iraqis, police said.
A third Baghdad car bomb exploded at about 10:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. EDT) near an emergency police patrol at Jordan Square in the Yarmuk area of western Baghdad, police said. A doctor at the hospital where the casualties were taken said one person was killed and 11 were wounded, including four police officers.
A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy exploded in Baghdad at 8 a.m. (midnight EDT), wounding four Iraqis, police said. It was not immediately known if there were any American casualties.
Meanwhile, U.S. troops battling insurgents near Iraq's border with Syria have encountered uniformed fighters whose gear may indicate a better-trained opposition than that found in other areas, a U.S. general has said.
Lt. Gen. James Conway, operations director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that some of the fighters were said to be wearing protective vests.
The American offensive began over the weekend against insurgents thought to be taking refuge and planning attacks in towns along the porous border region.
By Monday, the push had left at least 100 insurgents and three Marines dead, the U.S. military said.
On Tuesday, Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi, the governor of Anbar province, was kidnapped by people demanding that U.S. forces cease operations in the area, Anbar tribal sources said.
"There are reports that these people are in uniforms, in some cases are wearing protective vests, and there's some suspicion that their training exceeds that of what we have seen with other engagements further east," Conway said.
When asked further about the significance of the uniforms, Conway downplayed it, telling reporters at a Pentagon briefing that it was not the first time U.S. troops have seen uniformed insurgents.
"We have seen it in some instances," Conway said. "It's spotty."
"Let me make sure it's understood that this is not a single entity that is all in the same uniform," he said. "We're seeing some uniforms on some of the fighters."
When pressed, the general said the insurgents would not have additional legal rights under the Geneva Conventions if captured.
"It is not an organized army per se," Conway said.
"What I expressed to you was one line out of one report that talked about some insurgents wearing uniforms," he said.
Last month, insurgents dressed in Iraqi military uniforms killed an Iraqi general, Lt. Gen. Adnan Qaragholi, and his son at the general's home in southern Baghdad. (Full story)
Marines lead offensive
In the offensive along the Syrian border Tuesday, Marines crossed from the southern banks of the Euphrates River into the northern Jazira Desert "in pursuit of the enemy," the U.S. military said.
They are part of about 1,000 troops involved in the operation, the military said.
Insurgents, including at least two suicide car bombers, attacked U.S. forces in Qaim about 10 miles (16 kilometres) east of the Syrian border, the military said in a news release.
Ten insurgents were captured and no Marines were killed, the statement said.
Troops from the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines are trying to break down the network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said Monday. Coalition and Marine Corps aircraft are also participating.
Al-Zarqawi, the most wanted insurgent in Iraq, is thought to be responsible for many of the bombings in Iraq and has declared himself an ally of Osama bin Laden.
"The region, a known smuggling route and sanctuary for foreign fighters, is also used as a staging area where foreign fighters receive weapons and equipment for their attacks in the more populated key cities," the U.S. military said.
James Janega, a Chicago Tribune reporter embedded with the Marines, said troops had battled about 300 insurgents in and around the town of Ubaydi.
Janega said U.S. forces suspect residents of nearby towns signalled the approach of an armoured column by flicking their house lights on and off.
The Marines had not intended to make Ubaydi part of the operation but fought there most of Sunday and into Monday, he said.
"Their goal is to push through this region. It's about nine miles wide. They've pushed through about half of it," Janega said.
The operation is reminiscent of the siege of Falluja in November and another offensive along the Euphrates in February.
Three other U.S. Marines died Monday in combat in eastern Anbar province, the U.S. military said. Those incidents don't appear to be related to the offensive in the western part of the large province.
Two of the Marines were killed by an indirect attack during combat in Qarma, about 30 miles northwest of Baghdad.
A homemade bomb killed the other Marine in Nasser Wa Salaam, just west of Baghdad, near Abu Ghraib prison.
The latest deaths brought the number of American troops killed in the war to 1,606, according to U.S. military reports. |
