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U.S.
Brands Sadr An ‘Outlaw’, Attacks Fallujah
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An Iraqi girl watches from the entrance of her house U.S. soldiers patrolling the center of Mosul (AFP)
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BAGHDAD,
April 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least six Iraqis
were killed and up to ten others wounded early Monday, April 5, in
what appears to be a major U.S. operation to storm the restive city of
Fallujah, west of Baghdad.
Seven
U.S. soldiers were also killed and two dozen wounded Sunday night,
April 4, as the worst fighting between the U.S. occupation forces and
the country's Shiite majority since the start of the invasion dragged
on after U.S. overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer designated Shiite leader
Moqtada Al-Sadr as an “outlaw”.
The
U.S. occupation troops sealed off Fallujah’s entrances in a pre-dawn
operation and engaged in a two-hour fierce fighting with Iraqi
fighters in Al-Jolan district, Aljazeera satellite channel reported.
All
roads leading to this city were also cut off and barricaded with tanks
and concertina wire.
Witnesses
reported that a number of homes had been hit by what they said were
U.S. cluster bombs.
Operation
Valiant Resolve was expected to be one of the biggest occupation raids
since the ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein a year ago.
The
U.S. occupation commanders have
vowed a painful response after Iraqis killed four American
security contractors in the city on Wednesday, March 31.
An
Iraqi mob afterwards dragged their corpses through the streets and
hanged two of them from a bridge in scenes that showed the depth of
anti-occupation sentiment in the conflictive city.
Fallujah
leaders vowed Sunday that they would turn their city into a graveyard
for the Americans if they stormed it.
“Every
foreigner in Fallujah is a target,” Fallujah's chief administrator,
Fawzi Shaf Al-Aifan, told reporters. “The resistance attacks are
legitimate.”
7
U.S. Soldiers Killed
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A
wounded protester is carried after being shot by occupation
gunfire
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Meanwhile,
seven U.S. soldiers were killed and more than two dozen wounded Sunday
night, April 4, in fierce clashes with supporters of Shiite leader
Moqtada Al-Sadr in Baghdad.
The
U.S. occupation soldiers were killed in Baghdad suburb Sadr City, when
they tried to seize control of police and public buildings from Sadr's
Mahdi Army.
At
least 10 Iraqis were wounded in the clashes and a U.S. military Humvee
vehicle lit ablaze.
“Specifically,
the militia attempted to occupy and gain control of police stations
and government buildings,” the U.S. military said.
“Coalition
forces and Iraqi security forces prevented this effort and
reestablished security in Baghdad at the cost of seven U.S. soldiers
killed and more than two dozen wounded.”
The
deaths take to 609 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since
the U.S. and British troops invaded the country in March 2003,
according to an official U.S. tally.
Earlier
Sunday, Sadr supporters seized a number of police stations and other
public buildings in several Iraqi cities.
They
also took over the governor's office in the British-controlled port
city of Basra, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.
Dozens
of armed Mahdi militiamen stormed the governor's office in the
southern city at dawn Monday, raising a green flag on the roof of the
building, he said.
Sadr’s
militiamen were seen deployed inside and on the rooftop of the
governor's office alongside policemen who had been inside the building
when it was overtaken.
The
most blood was spilled in the shrine city of Najaf pitting Sadr
supporters against Spanish-led troops. At least 20 people were killed,
along with one Salvadoran soldier.
Four
people also died in fighting between Sadr militiamen and British
soldiers in the southern city of Amara.
In
an ominous development that threatens to widen the rift between Iraq's
Shiite majority and the occupation forces, Sadr told his supporters
Sunday to “terrorize
the enemy” as demonstrations were now pointless.
Sadr
declared jihad and urged his followers to take up arms against the
occupation, the first time by him to opt for armed resistance since
the end of the war to occupy Iraq on April 9.
‘Outlaw’
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Sadr
declared jihad against the U.S.-led occupation
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In
a further escalation, U.S. overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer regarded
Monday Sadr as an “outlaw” and posed a threat to Iraq’s national
security, Aljazeera satellite channel reported.
Sadr
observed Monday a second day of sit-in at a Kufa mosque, protesting
the U.S. provocations and intolerable practices.
On
Sunday, The loudspeakers of Shiite mosques loyal to Sadr had called
Sunday morning for his followers to observe a strike.
“Loyal
people of Iraq, in protest at the detention of scholars by the
occupation forces, the decision has been taken to call a general
strike at all government institutions and schools, so we call on you
to answer this call," the loudspeakers blared.
The
scion of an illustrious religious family, Sadr has clashed several
times with U.S. forces since last summer but has intensified his
verbal barrage against the U.S.-led occupation since it closed his
weekly newspaper on March 28.
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