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Shiites
Join Sunni Fighters In Al-Azamiya
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Members
of Mahdi Army with green bands roped their heads (AFP)
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Namir
Al-Hijazi, Samir Sobhy IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
April 7 (IslamOnline.net) - Iraqi Shiites have fought alongside fellow
Sunni compatriots in the Baghdad district of Al-Azamiya in die-hard
battles against U.S. forces, in the first joint resistance operation
against the U.S.-led occupation.
Fighters
from Mahdi Army of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr have been spotted with
their unmistakable green headbands and flags battling the occupiers
shoulder to shoulder with fellow countrymen in the predominantly Sunni
district, residents told IslamOnline.net.
The
battles raged on from Monday night, April 5, till the small hours of
Tuesday, April 6, they added.
"I
saw members of Mahdi Army disembark from a vehicle late Monday here in
Al-Azamiya," one eyewitness said, requesting anonymity.
"At
around 10:00 p.m. (07:00 GMT), I heard five simultaneous explosions
and saw columns of black smoke billowing into the night sky over a
military camp of the U.S. occupation troops.
"I
believe that it came under a mortar attack to pull their legs into
where they met tough resistance," added the witness.
He
said more reinforcements backed by tanks and all-terrain Humvees as
well as U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces came to the district.
"I
then heard the sound of exploding mortar rounds, rocket-propelled
grenades and intense gunfire, which raged on till early Tuesday, as
U.S. helicopters buzzed overhead, flying at low altitude and shaking
houses," added the resident.
He
said the battles left one U.S. Humvee destroyed with all inside
killed.
Another
resident told IOL that three fighters, including a Mahdi Army member,
were killed in the fierce battles.
"I
saw the bodies of the three martyrs lying in an alley with a green
headband roped to the head of one of them," he recalled.
Images
of Sadr have been also emblazoned across a wall in Al-Azamiya in an
unprecedented move by the Sunnis.
Already
burdened with tough resistance in the so-called Sunni triangle, which
includes the two flashpoint towns of Fallujah and Ramadi, U.S.-led
forces are facing now pitched battles with Iraq’s Shiites, which
killed some 100 Iraqis and wounded around 400 others.
In
Fallujah, at least 67 civilians were
killed and up to 100 injured as the U.S. troops pressed
Wednesday with a grisly offensive that started at dawn Monday.
The
grinding battles have also killed at least 40 U.S. occupation troops
over the past three days, taking to 624 the number of U.S. troops
killed since the start of the war last year.
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