United States forces suffered one of their costliest days in Iraq on Saturday when 19 troops were killed, including 12 on a helicopter and five in a clash in a Shi’ite holy city that the US military blamed on militiamen.
Several bombs kept up the pressure on Sunday. One killed six people on a bus in the centre of Baghdad while a car bomb killed one more in the capital. In the southern city of Basra, a roadside bomb killed a British soldier and wounded four more.
The battle at a government building in Kerbala was the bloodiest for US troops in the Shi’ite south in two years and occurred as President George Bush presses leaders of the Shi’ite majority to crack down on militias from their community.
The US military on Sunday revised the number killed in Saturday’s Blackhawk helicopter crash to 12, including four crew. The US military said another five soldiers were killed and three wounded in the Kerbala clash.
Two other soldiers were killed elsewhere, and the deaths of two killed on Friday were also announced.
It was unclear whether the helicopter was shot down. Residents near Baquba in violent Diyala province north-east of Baghdad said they saw a helicopter in flames in the air.
It was the deadliest day for US forces since Bush announced he was sending about 20Â 000 more troops to Iraq to try to prevent sectarian civil war between Shi’ite Muslims and the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority. His plans have run into resistance from opposition Democrats who now control Congress.
The US military said on Sunday a brigade of around 3Â 200 soldiers had arrived in Baghdad, the first of about 17Â 000 planned reinforcements for the city, and it would be fully operational by the start of February.
Thousands of pilgrims are thronging Kerbala, 110km south of Baghdad, at the start of the 10-day rite of Ashura, a highpoint of the Shi’ite calendar and a target before for attacks by al-Qaeda and other Sunnis.
”The Provincial Joint Coordination Center (PJCC) in Kerbala was attacked with grenades, small arms and indirect fires by an illegally armed militia group,” the US military said in a statement, apparently blaming Shi’ite militiamen rather than Sunni insurgents whom it usually refers to as ”terrorists”.
”Five US soldiers were killed and three wounded while repelling the attack.” It made no mention of attackers killed or detained and officials did not immediately respond to queries on how the assailants’ identity was established.
”We do know they’re militiamen but we’re not going to go any further than that,” US Major Steven Lamb said on Sunday, adding that investigations were continuing.
Convoy
An Iraqi local government official who said he was in the building throughout questioned the identification of those who fought the US troops posted outside a joint US-Iraqi base, in the provincial governor’s headquarters, just after dark.
Describing how a convoy of half a dozen white, US-made, unmarked four-wheel drive vehicles approached the compound around 6pm (3pm GMT), he said armed men in the convoy exchanged heavy fire with US soldiers.
US troops and Iraqi special forces later searched the office of the governor and other senior officials, said the official, who represents a major Shi’ite political party and spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
”It’s still very mysterious,” he said. ”I’m not sure why they say those people who came in were militia.”
Relations have become strained between Washington and the Shi’ite-led Iraqi government as the United States presses Baghdad to rein in Shi’ite militias blamed for death squad killings and tries to limit the influence of Shi’ite Iran.
Not since US troops fought street battles with the Mehdi Army of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in southern Iraq in 2004 have US forces had such heavy casualties in the region.
Sadr remains a potent force, both inside government behind Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, where the Mehdi Army has been accused by Washington of being the greatest threat to Iraq.
Aides to Sadr accused Washington of trying to provoke a confrontation by arresting one of its spokespersons on Friday.
Maliki has been criticised by US and Sunni leaders of failing to tackle the Mehdi Army but the prime minister vowed this month to crack down on Shi’ite militias as well as Sunni groups in a major operation backed by US reinforcements in Baghdad.
Sadr, a young populist cleric, enjoys a mass following in Iraq and some backing from neighbouring Shi’ite Iran. – Reuters