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Militiamen control parts of 3 iraq cities Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V0468.AP-Iraq.htmlhttp://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V0468.AP-Iraq.html
Militiamen Control Parts of 3 Iraq Cities
By LEE KEATH
Associated Press Writers
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)--Shiite Muslim militias 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 three Japanese and eight South Korean civilians.
In a videotape broadcast to the Arab world by Al-Jazeera, kidnappers armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened to kill the blindfolded Japanese hostages unless Tokyo withdrew its troops from Iraq.
Three explosions rocked central Baghdad, with smoke rising from the Green Zone--the sealed-off neighborhood where the U.S.-led coalition has its headquarters. The military did not immediately report casualties.
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 his resignation was also connected with the failure of Iraqi police to confront insurgents that coalition forces are battling on two fronts.
The militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has full control over the city of Kut and partial control in Najaf, but coalition forces will move soon to break their hold, said Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq said.
Residents of Kufa said militiamen also control that southern city by holding police stations and government buildings.
Sanchez 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.
Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from their bases in Kut on Wednesday, but Sanchez said coalition forces would retake it ``imminently.''
He suggested that the presence of hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims in Najaf for a religious occasion this weekend was hampering coalition forces from moving against militiamen there.
``We are very cognizant of the religious ceremonies,'' he said.
In the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah, U.S. Marines fought insurgents for a second day. One U.S. Marine was reported killed by the military, although it released no details.
Marines battled again around the Abdel-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque, which Marine 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. Cobra 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 move in and seize the site, Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne said.
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.
Lawmakers in Tokyo said the Japanese civilians--identified as two male journalists and a female aid worker--were kidnapped by a terrorist-related group, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
In the videotape, obtained by The Associated Press, three Japanese were shown blindfolded and crouched on the floor of a concrete walled room with an iron door standing behind them are four masked gunmen in black, holding automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenade 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.
The Japanese were blindfolded and surrounded by gunmen. The video showed the hostages' passports, confirming their nationality.
Tokyo has sent about 500 ground troops to the southern city of Samawah on a noncombat mission to help rebuild Iraq, Japan's first deployment of troops since World War II.
Japanese 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 be targeted by insurgents in that country.
The Japanese were taken by a group identifying itself as the ``Mujahedeen Squadrons,'' which Al-Jazeera said gave a three-day ultimatum for Japan to announce it will withdraw its troops or they would be killed.
The eight South Koreans were detained by unidentified ``armed men'' in Iraq but one was later released, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official in Seoul. The report gave no further details
The Foreign Ministry told the AP it did not know who was responsible for the capture of the South Koreans.
AP-NY-04-08-04 0909EDT
Copyright 2004, The Associated Press.
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