Eight Iraqi rebels were killed and at least four United States marines wounded in fierce fighting in the besieged city of Fallujah on Monday while a powerful blast at a Baghdad chemical plant claimed two lives.
Vital oil exports from Iraq’s main southern terminals resumed after a brief halt caused by foiled suicide boat raids at the weekend, which saw crude prices spike higher on the London market.
And radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, holed up in the holy city of Najaf, again warned the US military its troops would feel the ”fires of hell” if they carried out their threat to kill or capture him.
In the Sunni Muslim bastion of Fallujah, eight rebels were killed and four marines were injured as fierce fighting further rattled an uneasy ceasefire, US military officials said.
”Initial reports were eight enemy killed and four marines wounded,” Colonel John Coleman, chief of staff for the First Marine Expeditionary Force, told reporters.
Marines were fired on from a mosque which was then targeted by US forces and the minaret destroyed, an embedded pool reporter with the marines told CNN. He said another six marines were injured by shrapnel but the reports could not be immediately confirmed.
”Unfortunately the opposition forces … took it upon themselves to occupy a mosque,” said Coleman. ”Instead of serving as a centre of religious life, it was employed as a bastion in the attack.”
Plumes of black smoke rose from buildings in Fallujah, where joint patrols between marines and Iraqi security forces were expected to start this week after an apparent easing of tensions.
Senior coalition military officials had previously been ramping up the pressure on militants in the city, warning that ”time is running out” to hand over heavy weapons as agreed a week ago and threatening a renewed offensive.
But the US-led coalition said marines would join Iraqi forces to conduct joint patrols in Fallujah, scene of the worst fighting since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year with hundreds of Iraqis and scores of US troops killed.
The US marines launched their offensive against insurgents in Fallujah following the March 31 murder of four US civilian contractors.
Another two people were killed when an explosion tore through two chemical laboratories in northern Baghdad as US soldiers were inspecting the facility, flattening a nearby house and sending plumes of thick black smoke into the sky.
”A huge explosion occurred and four humvees [US armoured jeeps] were set ablaze after US soldiers entered a chemical lab,” said witness Salah al-Abed.
An Iraqi policeman, who refused to give his name, said he saw three US soldiers wounded or killed in each vehicle. Another four people were wounded in the blast, including two children, witnesses said.
Amr al-Tay, a journalist with London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat whose office is located nearby, said US soldiers regularly came to search the labs where they suspected explosives were being manufactured for makeshift bombs.
Several witnesses said US soldiers entered one of the labs and tried to force the door open, causing a spark which triggered the explosion.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s vital southern oil terminals were back in operation after beint shut down by suicide attacks that killed three US sailors, interim Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum said.
But the attacks on the terminals, where up to 90% of Iraq’s current oil exports are loaded, caused worries on world markets, where oil prices rose in London trade.
”Exports have been restored to their previous levels and security measures have been reinforced in collaboration with coalition forces to protect the oil installations,” the minister said.
Crude exports are vital for Iraq, particularly at a time when it is seeking to get back on its feet after years of war, mismanagement and oil sanctions.
Authorities have plans to ramp up crude output to three million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2004, up from 2,8-million bpd before US-led troops invaded the country but still down from the 3,5-million bpd Iraq exported before international sanctions were imposed over the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The top Iraqi security official said foreign prisoners, including Turks, Syrians and Moroccans, had admitted they were paid to conduct attacks against coalition troops and Iraqis.
”They confessed in clear Arabic that they have come to Iraq to carry out attacks and terrorist operations,” Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, newly appointed National Security Adviser, told reporters.
Meanwhile, radical cleric al-Sadr, holed up in the holy city of Najaf, warned in an interview that the US military would feel the ”fires of hell” if they carried out their threat to kill or capture him.
”The Americans should know that the people will unleash the fires of hell against them if anything happens to me,” he told the Rome daily La Repubblica in a telephone interview from Najaf.
The top US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, said on Sunday that ”a dangerous situation is developing in Najaf, where weapons are being stockpiled in mosques and shrines and schools”, and that ”this explosive situation threatens the general population there”.
Al-Sadr confirmed a previous threat to use suicide bombers if US forces entered Najaf, or another holy city, Karbala.
Poland announced that the US would take over responsibility for two out of five provinces administered by Poland in Iraq, notably Najaf and Al-Qadisiyah.
The move follows the announcement by Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic to pull their troops out of Iraq, where they formed part of the Polish-led force.
The Polish sector has been the scene of violent clashes for the past month — the deadliest since the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein last year — with a Bulgarian soldier dying earlier on Friday in the holy city of Karbala.
During an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov said that his country’s troops would remain in Iraq despite the tense situation there, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
But a poll showed on Monday that a majority of Thais want the kingdom’s troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hinted last week that the 451-strong contingent would be pulled out, saying he hoped the US would understand if Thailand had to take that decision because of rising violence. — Sapa-AFP