Spoetnik
05-10-04, 11:29
Heavy Baghdad clashes between US troops and rebels
BAGHDAD, Oct 5 (Reuters) Heavy fighting erupted between US troops and Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad's Sadr City slum and American AC-130 aircraft pounded suspected rebel positions, witnesses said.
There was no immediate word on casualties. The attack on Sadr City last night came after the US military said it had retaken control of the city of Samarra, part of a major offensive designed to crush insurgent strongholds.
''I hear explosions. AC-130 planes were firing,'' a resident of Sadr City told Reuters by telephone.
The vast slum of more than two million people is the Baghdad stronghold of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers have staged two rebellions against the presence of US troops in Iraq.
US and Iraqi government forces want to crush insurgents in Baghdad and several other cities ahead of elections scheduled for January.
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=20828
Meer onschuldige doden.
BAGHDAD, Oct 5 (Reuters) Heavy fighting erupted between US troops and Shi'ite militiamen in Baghdad's Sadr City slum and American AC-130 aircraft pounded suspected rebel positions, witnesses said.
There was no immediate word on casualties. The attack on Sadr City last night came after the US military said it had retaken control of the city of Samarra, part of a major offensive designed to crush insurgent strongholds.
''I hear explosions. AC-130 planes were firing,'' a resident of Sadr City told Reuters by telephone.
The vast slum of more than two million people is the Baghdad stronghold of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers have staged two rebellions against the presence of US troops in Iraq.
US and Iraqi government forces want to crush insurgents in Baghdad and several other cities ahead of elections scheduled for January.
http://www.deepikaglobal.com/latestnews.asp?ncode=20828
Meer onschuldige doden.