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More Than 40 People Killed in Bloody Day for Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were among more than 40 people killed in a spate of attacks in Iraq on Saturday, the latest violence in the bloodiest month for U.S.-led forces since they toppled Saddam Hussein.
In one of the worst incidents of the day, at least 13 Iraqis were killed and 30 were wounded when rockets or mortar bombs struck a busy market in the Shi'ite Muslim area of Sadr City in Baghdad, witnesses and hospital sources said.
"There was blood and bodies everywhere," said Bassam Abdul Rahim.
Angry residents of Sadr City -- a powerbase of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who U.S.-led forces have vowed to kill or capture -- held up bloodied human remains to television cameras and said U.S. helicopters had fired at the market.
They put a sign on a dead donkey saying: "This is Bush."
One woman was killed in a separate attack in the same area when a mortar bomb hit her home. Her daughter was wounded.
The U.S. military said it had no immediate information on the incidents in Sadr City.
SADR A WANTED MAN
Sadr, who U.S. officials say is wanted by an Iraqi judge in connection with the murder of another cleric, is holed up with his Mehdi Army militia in the southern city of Najaf, a holy site to Iraq's Shi'ite majority.
On Friday, Sadr threatened to unleash suicide bombers if he was attacked by U.S. forces poised just outside the city.
U.S. forces say are allowing time for Iraqi mediators to resolve the standoff.
Fourteen Iraqis were killed when a bus, traveling to Baghdad just ahead of a convoy of six U.S. military vehicles, was hit by a roadside bomb.
The five U.S. soldiers were killed in a guerrilla rocket attack on a U.S. base just north of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said. Six other soldiers were wounded.
U.S. helicopter gunships destroyed the truck from which the rockets were launched, but there was no word of casualties among the guerrillas.
Since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March last year to oust Saddam, 515 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action -- more than a fifth of them this month.
In Saddam's home town of Tikrit, a car bomb killed three policemen and wounded 16 people -- 12 of them police. It appeared to be a suicide attack.
Polish soldiers killed five Iraqi gunmen who opened fire on their patrol in the holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, Polish military officials said.
West of Baghdad, U.S. Marines were poised to resume an offensive in the Sunni town of Falluja unless guerrillas turned over heavy weapons.
U.N. ENVOY URGES AGAINST SHOOTING
Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy to Iraq who is trying to put together an interim Iraqi government to take over from U.S.-led occupation authorities on June 30, urged the Marines to hold off.
"I think that there is always a better solution than shooting your way into anywhere," Brahimi said.
A few families who fled fierce fighting in Falluja earlier this month returned to the battle-scarred city on Saturday, hours after Iraq's U.S. Governor Paul Bremer said "major hostilities could resume at short notice."
Brahimi said he wanted the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to be dissolved on June 30 and its politicians to be excluded from the interim government of technocrats he thinks should see Iraq through to elections in January 2005.
In an interview with U.S. TV network ABC to be broadcast on Sunday, Brahimi dismissed the idea of expanding the existing 25-member council.
"The fear is that, you know, as somebody put it, perhaps a bit too unkindly, they will clone themselves. And why do you want to have that?" said the former Algerian foreign minister.
UPSURGE IN VIOLENCE
The upsurge in violence this month -- including a series of car bombs in the southern Shi'ite city of Basra that killed 73 people -- has unnerved several countries with troops in Iraq.
Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have said they are withdrawing and Washington is trying to persuade other states to remain after June 30, saying fledgling Iraqi forces cannot cope on their own.
President Bush acknowledged "tough work" lay ahead, saying the "enemies of freedom" would kill anyone in their campaign to stop a democratic Iraq emerging.
"But the stakes are too high for us to leave," Bush said on Friday at a fund-raising meeting in Florida for his campaign to be re-elected in November.
Britain said it might send more troops to replace the Spanish, but several other countries are committed to staying only until the end of June. (Additional reporting by Fiona O'Brien, Mussab Khairalla, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Seif Fouad, Sami al-Jumaili)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4929254§ion=news
"There was blood and bodies everywhere," said Bassam Abdul Rahim.
Angry residents of Sadr City -- a powerbase of rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who U.S.-led forces have vowed to kill or capture -- held up bloodied human remains to television cameras and said U.S. helicopters had fired at the market.
They put a sign on a dead donkey saying: "This is Bush."
One woman was killed in a separate attack in the same area when a mortar bomb hit her home. Her daughter was wounded.
The U.S. military said it had no immediate information on the incidents in Sadr City.
SADR A WANTED MAN
Sadr, who U.S. officials say is wanted by an Iraqi judge in connection with the murder of another cleric, is holed up with his Mehdi Army militia in the southern city of Najaf, a holy site to Iraq's Shi'ite majority.
On Friday, Sadr threatened to unleash suicide bombers if he was attacked by U.S. forces poised just outside the city.
U.S. forces say are allowing time for Iraqi mediators to resolve the standoff.
Fourteen Iraqis were killed when a bus, traveling to Baghdad just ahead of a convoy of six U.S. military vehicles, was hit by a roadside bomb.
The five U.S. soldiers were killed in a guerrilla rocket attack on a U.S. base just north of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said. Six other soldiers were wounded.
U.S. helicopter gunships destroyed the truck from which the rockets were launched, but there was no word of casualties among the guerrillas.
Since U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq in March last year to oust Saddam, 515 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action -- more than a fifth of them this month.
In Saddam's home town of Tikrit, a car bomb killed three policemen and wounded 16 people -- 12 of them police. It appeared to be a suicide attack.
Polish soldiers killed five Iraqi gunmen who opened fire on their patrol in the holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad, Polish military officials said.
West of Baghdad, U.S. Marines were poised to resume an offensive in the Sunni town of Falluja unless guerrillas turned over heavy weapons.
U.N. ENVOY URGES AGAINST SHOOTING
Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations special envoy to Iraq who is trying to put together an interim Iraqi government to take over from U.S.-led occupation authorities on June 30, urged the Marines to hold off.
"I think that there is always a better solution than shooting your way into anywhere," Brahimi said.
A few families who fled fierce fighting in Falluja earlier this month returned to the battle-scarred city on Saturday, hours after Iraq's U.S. Governor Paul Bremer said "major hostilities could resume at short notice."
Brahimi said he wanted the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council to be dissolved on June 30 and its politicians to be excluded from the interim government of technocrats he thinks should see Iraq through to elections in January 2005.
In an interview with U.S. TV network ABC to be broadcast on Sunday, Brahimi dismissed the idea of expanding the existing 25-member council.
"The fear is that, you know, as somebody put it, perhaps a bit too unkindly, they will clone themselves. And why do you want to have that?" said the former Algerian foreign minister.
UPSURGE IN VIOLENCE
The upsurge in violence this month -- including a series of car bombs in the southern Shi'ite city of Basra that killed 73 people -- has unnerved several countries with troops in Iraq.
Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have said they are withdrawing and Washington is trying to persuade other states to remain after June 30, saying fledgling Iraqi forces cannot cope on their own.
President Bush acknowledged "tough work" lay ahead, saying the "enemies of freedom" would kill anyone in their campaign to stop a democratic Iraq emerging.
"But the stakes are too high for us to leave," Bush said on Friday at a fund-raising meeting in Florida for his campaign to be re-elected in November.
Britain said it might send more troops to replace the Spanish, but several other countries are committed to staying only until the end of June. (Additional reporting by Fiona O'Brien, Mussab Khairalla, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Seif Fouad, Sami al-Jumaili)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4929254§ion=news
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Rocket and bomb attacks across Iraq have killed dozens of Iraqi civilians, as well as policemen and US soldiers.
More than 30 Iraqis were killed and about 42 wounded by explosions in Baghdad and elsewhere.
Some seven US soldiers are reported dead - five in a rocket attack on their base in Taji, north of the capital.
Meanwhile, negotiators in Falluja appear to have reached a deal which will see joint US-Iraqi patrols and firearms banned from the streets.
American negotiators had been losing patience, but the recent deal sets out joint patrols of US soldiers and Iraqi police in the battle-scarred city from next Tuesday.
Iraqis will no longer be allowed to carry firearms, and leaders will continue to collect heavy weapons under the arms amnesty which began last week.
Iraqi civilians and humanitarian aid should eventually be allowed to enter the city, west of Baghdad.
A BBC correspondent with the US Marines outside Falluja says the deal seems to have averted another push by US forces, which have been preparing for a possible offensive inside the city.
Deaths mount
However, the Iraqi and US death toll continued to mount on Saturday, with widespread attacks.
Reports are coming in of an attack on a Gulf oil terminal off the Iraqi coast. UK military officials said there had been an explosion on a rig and at least one boat was involved.
At least 13 Iraqis were killed and about 30 wounded by explosions in a busy market in Baghdad's Sadr City.
Witnesses said they saw at least two rockets land in the chicken market in Sadr City - a Shia Muslim stronghold.
"We were standing talking when two rockets landed," Bassam Abdul Rahim told Reuters news agency.
"The second hit a gas canister and the explosion was huge. There was blood and bodies everywhere."
The director of Sadr City hospital, Abdul Jabbar al-Zubaidi, said several of the wounded were in a critical condition.
It was not immediately clear what had prompted the attack. A US military official told the AFP news agency that his troops were not in the area at the time.
But Sadr City had been the scene of earlier clashes between US forces - who were reportedly attempting to raid a mosque - and supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
One Iraqi civilian was killed and several wounded after fighting caused a fire that spread to cars and buildings, the BBC's David Willis reports from Baghdad.
Bus hit
In another incident, witnesses said a roadside bomb went off as a bus was travelling just ahead of a US convoy near Iskandariya, 50km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
Fourteen Iraqis were killed and 12 others reported injured.
Local people rushed to the scene from a nearby village to help the injured and US troops sealed off the area, they said.
The Americans have not confirmed the incident.
Just north of the capital, insurgents fired two rockets at the US military base in Taji - formerly an Iraqi air force base - at about 0530 (0130GMT).
Five US soldiers were killed and six wounded - three critically - in the attack, said a military spokesman.
Another two soldiers were killed in an attack on their convoy near Kut, south of Baghdad, reports say. The attack has not been acknowledged by the coalition.
Car bomb
And in Tikrit, the former home town of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a car bomb exploded near the main US base.
At least four Iraqi policemen were killed and 16 - including 12 police officers - were wounded, said reports.
A suicide bomber is understood to have been driving the car alongside the outer wall of the base when the vehicle exploded, near to shops.
The Associated Press said television footage showed twisted wreckage of vehicles with at least three bodies.
Tikrit had been quiet in recent months, despite being a focal point of resistance against the coalition.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3655127.stm
More than 30 Iraqis were killed and about 42 wounded by explosions in Baghdad and elsewhere.
Some seven US soldiers are reported dead - five in a rocket attack on their base in Taji, north of the capital.
Meanwhile, negotiators in Falluja appear to have reached a deal which will see joint US-Iraqi patrols and firearms banned from the streets.
American negotiators had been losing patience, but the recent deal sets out joint patrols of US soldiers and Iraqi police in the battle-scarred city from next Tuesday.
Iraqis will no longer be allowed to carry firearms, and leaders will continue to collect heavy weapons under the arms amnesty which began last week.
Iraqi civilians and humanitarian aid should eventually be allowed to enter the city, west of Baghdad.
A BBC correspondent with the US Marines outside Falluja says the deal seems to have averted another push by US forces, which have been preparing for a possible offensive inside the city.
Deaths mount
However, the Iraqi and US death toll continued to mount on Saturday, with widespread attacks.
Reports are coming in of an attack on a Gulf oil terminal off the Iraqi coast. UK military officials said there had been an explosion on a rig and at least one boat was involved.
At least 13 Iraqis were killed and about 30 wounded by explosions in a busy market in Baghdad's Sadr City.
Witnesses said they saw at least two rockets land in the chicken market in Sadr City - a Shia Muslim stronghold.
"We were standing talking when two rockets landed," Bassam Abdul Rahim told Reuters news agency.
"The second hit a gas canister and the explosion was huge. There was blood and bodies everywhere."
The director of Sadr City hospital, Abdul Jabbar al-Zubaidi, said several of the wounded were in a critical condition.
It was not immediately clear what had prompted the attack. A US military official told the AFP news agency that his troops were not in the area at the time.
But Sadr City had been the scene of earlier clashes between US forces - who were reportedly attempting to raid a mosque - and supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr.
One Iraqi civilian was killed and several wounded after fighting caused a fire that spread to cars and buildings, the BBC's David Willis reports from Baghdad.
Bus hit
In another incident, witnesses said a roadside bomb went off as a bus was travelling just ahead of a US convoy near Iskandariya, 50km (30 miles) south of Baghdad.
Fourteen Iraqis were killed and 12 others reported injured.
Local people rushed to the scene from a nearby village to help the injured and US troops sealed off the area, they said.
The Americans have not confirmed the incident.
Just north of the capital, insurgents fired two rockets at the US military base in Taji - formerly an Iraqi air force base - at about 0530 (0130GMT).
Five US soldiers were killed and six wounded - three critically - in the attack, said a military spokesman.
Another two soldiers were killed in an attack on their convoy near Kut, south of Baghdad, reports say. The attack has not been acknowledged by the coalition.
Car bomb
And in Tikrit, the former home town of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a car bomb exploded near the main US base.
At least four Iraqi policemen were killed and 16 - including 12 police officers - were wounded, said reports.
A suicide bomber is understood to have been driving the car alongside the outer wall of the base when the vehicle exploded, near to shops.
The Associated Press said television footage showed twisted wreckage of vehicles with at least three bodies.
Tikrit had been quiet in recent months, despite being a focal point of resistance against the coalition.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3655127.stm
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