Battle rages through Iraq, 12 GIs killed

Masked members of Shia radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of Mehdi militia guard al-Sadr's office in Baghdad's Sadr City yesterday where scores of people have been killed since a US Army offensive launched to quell a Shia revolt. PHOTO: AFP

US Marines in a fierce battle for the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah dropped two 500-pound bombs and fired rockets at a mosque filled with worshippers yesterday, and witnesses said as many as 40 people were killed. Shia-inspired violence spread to nearly all of Iraq.

The fighting in Fallujah and neighboring Ramadi, where commanders confirmed 12 Marines were killed late Tuesday, was part of an intensified uprising involving both Sunni and Shias that now stretched from Kirkuk in the north to the far south.

An Associated Press reporter in Fallujah saw cars ferrying the dead and wounded from the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque. Witnesses said a helicopter fired three missiles into the compound, destroying part of a wall surrounding the mosque but not damaging the main building.

The strike came as worshippers had gathered for afternoon prayers, witnesses said. Temporary hospitals were set up in private homes to treat the wounded and prepare the dead for burial.

Until the mosque attack, reports had at least 30 Americans and more than 150 Iraqis dead in fighting for Ramadi and Fallujah.

Anti-American violence intensified and spread to cities in northern Iraq yesterday. A US helicopter was forced down after being hit by small arms fire, and a Marine commander confirmed 12 of his men had been killed in fighting west of Baghdad.

Scores of Iraqis also have been wounded, as mosques called for a holy war against Americans and women carried guns in the streets.

American and allied forces fought both Sunni and Shia Muslim militants nationwide in a continuation of the heaviest fighting since Baghdad fell to US troops a year ago this week.

Marines fought for control in the Sunni Triangle cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and soldiers battled Shia militiamen in cities stretching from near Kirkuk in the largely Kurdish north to holy cities in the Shiite heartland to the south of Baghdad.

US Marines have vowed to pacify the violent towns of Ramadi and Fallujah that had been a center of the guerrilla insurgency seeking to oust the US-led occupation force. The 12 Marines were killed Tuesday in Ramadi, where Maj. Gen. James Mattis, 1st Marine Division commander, said his forces still were fighting insurgents that included Syrian mercenaries along a one-mile front.

Sixteen children and eight women were reported killed when warplanes struck four houses late Tuesday, said Hatem Samir, a Fallujah Hospital official.

A US helicopter was hit by small arms fire and forced down in Baqouba, 30 miles north of Baghdad, the military said, as American soldiers fought militiamen of fiery anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose forces have been responsible for much of the violence other than in Ramadi and Fallujah.

No one was hurt aboard the OH-58 Kiowa chopper, and the military planned to transport it to a nearby base by truck, a US official in Baghdad said on condition of anonymity.

Ukrainian-led forces and al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army clashed in the city of Kut, southeast of Baghdad, overnight, and at least 12 Iraqis were reported killed and 20 wounded, hospital officials said. Witnesses reported the gunmen killed a British civilian working for a foreign security company.