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FALLUJAH,
Iraq _ U.S. troops pounded insurgents in Mosul,
Iraq's third largest city, after guerrillas attacked
police stations and bridges in an apparent attempt
to relieve pressure on Fallujah, where American
forces continued their assault on the rebel
stronghold.
Insurgents Thursday tried to break through the U.S.
cordon surrounding Fallujah, where an estimated 600
insurgents, 18 U.S. troops and five Iraqi soldiers
have been killed in the four-day assault, the U.S.
military said. At least 178 Americans and 34 Iraqi
soldiers have been wounded.
Smoke rose over Mosul on Thursday as U.S. warplanes
streaked overhead. City officials warned residents
to stay away from the five major bridges. Militants
brandishing rocket-propelled grenades stood in front
of a hospital.
Saadi Ahmed, a senior member of the pro-American
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, said nine police
stations were attacked and that "Iraqi police turned
some stations over to the terrorists."
"The internal security forces ... are a failure and
are ineffective because some of them are cooperating
with the terrorists," Ahmed said.
A U.S. military spokeswoman, Capt. Angela Bowman,
said it could take "some time until we fully secure"
Mosul.
An Iraqi journalist in Fallujah reported seeing
burned U.S. vehicles and bodies in the street, with
more buried under the wreckage. He said two men
trying to move a corpse were shot down by a sniper.
Two of the three small clinics in the city have been
bombed, and in one case, medical staff and patients
were killed, he said. A U.S. tank was positioned
beside the third clinic, and residents were afraid
to go there, he said.
"People are afraid of even looking out the window
because of snipers," he said, asking that he not be
named for his own safety. "The Americans are
shooting anything that moves."
Many of Fallujah's 200,000 to 300,000 residents fled
the city before the assault. It is impossible to
determine how many civilians who were not actively
fighting the Americans or assisting the insurgents
may have been killed.
Commanders said 1,200 to 3,000 fighters were
believed in Fallujah before the offensive.
Elsewhere, a series of attacks throughout central
Iraq underscored the nation's perilous security. In
Baghdad, a car bomb exploded Thursday moments after
a U.S. patrol passed, killing 17 bystanders and
wounding 30. There were no U.S. casualties.
A car bomb exploded in Kirkuk as the governor's
convoy was passing, killing a bystander and wounding
14 people. Three Iraqis were killed in a shootout
between U.S. troops and insurgents in Samarra. Two
car bombs injured eight people in Hillah.
Al-Jazeera television aired a videotape showing what
the station said was an American contractor of
Lebanese origin held hostage in Iraq. The
middle-aged man carried a U.S. passport and an
identification card in the name of Dean Sadek. Al-Jazeera
did not air any audio but quoted Sadek as saying all
businesses should stop cooperating with U.S.
authorities.
Most of the insurgents still fighting in Fallujah
are believed to have fallen back to southern
districts ahead of the advancing U.S. and Iraqi
forces, although fierce clashes were reported in the
west of the city around the public market.
American officers said the majority of the insurgent
mortar and machine-gun fire Thursday was directed at
U.S. military units forming a cordon around the city
to prevent guerrillas from slipping away.
Officers said that suggested the insurgents were
trying to break out of Fallujah rather than defend
it.
Meanwhile, two Marine Super Cobra attack helicopters
were hit by ground fire and forced to land in
separate incidents near Fallujah, the military said.
The four pilots were rescued, though one suffered
slight injuries.
At a U.S. camp outside Fallujah, Maj. Gen. Richard
Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division, said
the operation was running "ahead of schedule," but
he would not predict how many days of fighting lay
ahead.
He said troops had found an arms cache in "almost
every single mosque in Fallujah."
Natonski also said he had visited a "slaughterhouse"
in the northern Jolan neighborhood where hostages
were held and possibly killed by militants. He
described a small room with no windows and just one
door. He said he saw two thin mattresses, straw mats
covered in blood and a wheelchair that apparently
was used to transport captives.
U.S. officials believe the al-Qaida-linked terror
movement of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed
responsibility for many of the kidnappings and
beheadings of foreign hostages, used Fallujah as a
base. They said they believe al-Zarqawi may have
slipped away before the offensive.
In April, Fallujah militants fought Marines to a
standstill during a three-week siege, which the Bush
administration called off amid public criticism over
civilian casualties.
The current offensive was begun so the government
can hold national elections in January, although
Sunni clerics have called a boycott to protest the
Fallujah operation.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.
Richard Myers, said Thursday that "hundreds and
hundreds of insurgents" have been killed and
captured. He called the Fallujah offensive "very,
very successful" but said it would not spell the end
of the insurgency.
"If anybody thinks that Fallujah is going to be the
end of the insurgency in Iraq, that was never the
objective, never our intention, and even never our
hope," Myers told NBC.
Contributing to this report were Associated Press
writers Jim Krane near Fallujah; and Tini Tran,
Sameer N. Yacoub, Mariam Fam, Sabah Jerges, Katarina
Kratovac and Maggie Michael in Baghdad.
http://www.thetimesonline.com
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