American forces launched an offensive to seize back control of the Iraqi town of Samarra on Friday, claiming to have killed almost 100 insurgents and captured more than 30 in several hours of bombing raids and street fighting.
US forces also carried out air and ground strikes on Friday night deep into the Sadr City slum in east Baghdad, while jets mounted another raid on the rebel city of Falluja, killing at least three civilians.
US forces and the Iraqi government have vowed to wrest back control of insurgent parts of Iraq before the national elections due in January.
In the Samarra assault, jet fighters began a series of strikes coordinated with artillery barrages on targets in the city, about 96km north of Baghdad. The US military said a force of 5 000, including 2 000 Iraqi soldiers, moved into the city centre. A Turkish hostage who had been working for a building company was freed during the assault.
A hospital doctor in Samarra said at least 80 bodies had been brought in, but it was unclear how many were fighters. Another said at least five children, 11 women and seven elderly men had died.
US and Iraqi forces blocked the roads into the city on Friday night to prevent insurgents moving in and out, said Major Neal O’Brien, a US military spokesperson.
Samarra, which has a Sunni population with a Shia minority, has been dominated by insurgents and too dangerous for the US forces to enter for months. It sits in the centre of the Sunni heartland near other violent towns such as Falluja and Ramadi.
The strikes on Sadr City, meanwhile, followed clashes earlier in the day in the slum, another problem area and a Shia militia stronghold in the eastern suburbs of Baghdad. Doctors said 12 Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded.
Last month US commanders claimed they had secured Samarra sufficiently to restore police patrols and revive the local council.
Addressing the US Congress last week, Ayad Allawi, the interim Iraqi prime minister, spoke of a new peace in Samarra, hailing it as a sign of political progress.
His words were woefully optimistic and, in reality, insurgents still held sway. Earlier this week, armed fighters from the Tawhid and Jihad militant group led by the Jordanian, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, drove brazenly through the city streets, ordering motorists to give up music tapes in return for cassettes of Quranic readings.
On Friday the US 1st Infantry Division said it was fighting to restore order there. ”In response to repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces, Iraqi security forces and multinational forces secured the government and police buildings in Samarra early in the morning,” the army statement said.
It added: ”Unimpeded access throughout the city for Iraqi security forces and multinational forces is non-negotiable.”
The army claimed to have killed 94 insurgents and said one American soldier had died and four had been wounded.
Iraqi commandos had taken over Samarra’s Golden mosque and arrested 25 rebels inside it, said US officials. By midday, Iraq’s interior ministry said, the police were back in control of the centre and some surrounding areas.
Electricity and water were cut off as tanks pushed through the streets and came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades and rifles. Roads leading to the city were blocked by tanks, and a 12-hour nighttime curfew was imposed.
Several houses and many vehicles were destroyed in the operation. ”We are terrified by the violent approach used by the Americans to subdue the city,” Mahmoud Saleh (33) a civil servant, told Associated Press.
”My wife and children are scared to death and they have not been able to sleep since last night. I hope the fighting ends as soon as possible.”
Samarra is one of several insurgent-held areas which the US and the Iraqi government have vowed to retake before the January elections.
By far their toughest battle will be in Falluja, where the US marines fought for three weeks in April, killing at least 600 Iraqis and provoking huge protests throughout the country. Since then, the many Islamic militant groups in Falluja have gone from strength to strength. – Guardian Unlimited Â