Carnage in Iraq Continues
08/28/2006
34 killed in clashes with Shiites; nine U.S. soldiers die during the weekend
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Clashes between members of a powerful Shiite militia and U.S. and Iraqi troops left at least 34 people dead and 70 injured in the southern city of Diwaniyah, officials said Monday.
The fighting broke out at about 11 p.m. Sunday when Iraqi soldiers conducted raids in three neighborhoods in the city of to flush out the militiamen and seize weapons, said army Capt. Fatik Aied.
The fighting continued Monday as U.S. forces came to the Iraqi army’s aid, he said. The Mahdi Army militiamen, local to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, were using rocket propelled grenades and automatic assault rifles.
Dr. Mohammed Abdul-Muhsen of the city’s general hospital said 34 bodies were brought in — 25 Iraqi soldiers, seven civilians and two militiamen. He said at least 70 people were injured, but could not immediately give a breakdown.
Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, is a Shiite-dominated city where the influence of Mahdi Army has been gradually increasing. It already runs a virtual parallel government in Sadr City, a slum in eastern Baghdad.
The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has found it difficult to rein in al-Sadr, whose movement holds 30 of the 275 seats in parliament and five Cabinet posts.
Al-Sadr’s backing also helped al-Maliki win the top job during painstaking negotiations within the Shiite alliance that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Al-Sadr mounted two major uprisings against the American-led coalition in 2004 when U.S. authorities closed his newspaper and pushed an Iraqi judge to issue an arrest warrant against him.
But American forces have also been wary of confronting the Mahdi Army because of al-Sadr’s clout over the government and his large following among Shiites, who are in a majority in Iraq.
Bloody weekend for U.S. troops
Nine American soldiers were killed over the weekend, eight of them by roadside bombs that hit their vehicles in separate incidents in the Baghdad area, the U.S. military command said.
All but one of the deaths occurred on Sunday, the military said in a series of statements released late Sunday and Monday.
In the deadliest incident, four soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
Another two were killed when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad, the military said Monday, amending an earlier statement that said one soldier had died in that incident.
One more soldier was killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the military said, while another was killed by small arms fire Sunday in eastern Baghdad.
On Saturday night, a ninth another soldier was killed in a roadside bombing southeast of Baghdad, it said.
More than 2,600 U.S. military personnel have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press Count.
On Monday, a suicide car bomber slammed into a checkpoint outside the Interior Ministry in downtown Baghdad Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 43, police said.
The attack occurred at midmorning, when traffic is usually heavy, and the blast was heard more than a mile away. Police 1st Lt. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said the dead included seven policemen. Seventeen policemen were among the injured, he said.