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US forces street battles with iraqi militants { April 29 2008 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042900668.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/29/AR2008042900668.html
U.S. forces say kill 34 militants in Baghdad
By Tim Cocks and Dean Yates
Reuters
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; 12:06 PM
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces said they killed 34 militiamen in a Baghdad stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday in a series of clashes including one street battle that raged for four hours.
Doctors at the two hospitals in the Iraqi cleric's bastion of Sadr City said they had received the bodies of 21 people killed and 62 wounded. Women and children were among the casualties, they said.
Reuters Television footage showed firemen pulling the body of a young boy, covered in dust, from the rubble of a house that had been destroyed. It was unclear what had hit the building. The body of another child was seen being brought to a hospital.
Six U.S. soldiers were wounded overall, the military said.
Security forces have been fighting militiamen loyal to the anti-American cleric for weeks in the Sadr City slum but the latest battles mark an escalation of the conflict.
Fighting has flared since Sunday when gunmen used the cover of dust storms to attack U.S. and Iraqi positions, despite a call by Sadr to observe a shaky truce he has threatened to scrap unless the government ends raids on his Mehdi Army militia.
The attacks by militants indicate some fighters claiming allegiance to Sadr are ignoring his call for a truce to be observed, raising questions about how far he controls them and whether he is sincere about wanting to defuse the conflict.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said there had been no air strikes in Sadr City but troops had used ground-based multiple-launch guided rockets, which had struck militants firing from buildings, alleys and roofs.
"It was these militants who initiated the engagement by attacking U.S. soldiers," he said.
He said 28 gunmen were killed in one four-hour battle on Tuesday that erupted around mid-morning when militants ambushed American troops with roadside bombs, grenades and small arms.
The deaths brought to 79 the number of militants the U.S. says it killed since a flare-up of violence on Sunday.
THREE DAYS OF DUST STORMS
The manager of the Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City, Qasim al-Mudalal, said 13 bodies had been brought in. Staff were treating 45 wounded.
Most victims had gunshot wounds, although some had been hit by explosions or had been burned.
The U.S. military said it was showing restraint.
"We continually show great restraint and professionalism when attacked and clearly identify the enemy before engaging their positions," Colonel Allen Batschelet, chief of staff of the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said in a statement.
Besides attacking security forces, gunmen have used the cover of three days of dust storms to fire salvoes of rockets at the heavily fortified Green Zone government compound.
The bad weather has grounded U.S. Apache attack helicopters, which normally hunt rocket and mortar teams.
With the death toll rising in Sadr City, the escalating violence threatens to radicalize the cleric's followers.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told Reuters on Monday that while the government would pursue its war on militias, it must avoid isolating Sadr's mass movement or pushing his followers into the arms of groups bent on chaos.
He said the government had to distinguish between Sadr's movement and so-called "special groups," which the U.S. military says are rogue Mehdi Army elements backed by Iran.
The U.S. military blames the special groups for firing most of the rockets at the Green Zone.
"This a major political challenge for us as a government, to avoid pushing the followers of the Sadr movement together with the special groups," Salih said.
"On the other hand, leaders of the Sadr movement must also help in distinguishing themselves and their followers from these bad elements who are trying to hijack their movement to use it as a cover for their malicious agenda."
(Additional reporting by Dean Yates, Wisam Mohammed, Aws Qusay, Khalid al-Ansary and Peter Graff; edited by Richard Meares)
© 2008 Reuters
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