Quagmire Accomplished!

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      December 1, 2003
      46 Iraqis Die in Fierce Fight Between Rebels and G.I.'s
      By EDWARD WONG

      AGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 30 - American soldiers killed 46 guerrilla
attackers in a firefight on Sunday afternoon in central Iraq. Military
officials said the clash was the largest battle in the country since
coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein's government last spring.

      At least 18 of the attackers were wounded, the military said, and
eight were captured. No American deaths were reported.

      The soldiers, members of the Fourth Infantry Division, met multiple
ambushes on two convoys rolling separately through the town of Samarra,
about 60 miles north of Baghdad, said Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a division
spokesman. The Americans responded with automatic rifle fire, Bradley
fighting vehicles and other weapons.

      Three buildings lay in ruins, destroyed by the American weaponry,
Sergeant Cargie said in an interview.

      Artillery shells, rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles
were strewn across the rubble. So were dozens of bodies, apparently all
Iraqi, many wearing the uniforms of fedayeen paramilitary fighters loyal to
the overthrown Hussein government, according to Sergeant Cargie. Five
American soldiers and one civilian traveling with one of the convoys were
wounded.

      "Coalition firepower overwhelmed the attackers," Sergeant Cargie said.

      The American display of force was among the most deadly for Iraqi
fighters since the occupation began.

      The battle came on the final day of the bloodiest month for American
soldiers in Iraq, with 81 dead, almost half of those in helicopter crashes
linked to enemy fire. By contrast, in April, the month of the invasion, 73
Americans died.

      The firefight unfolded in an area where three foreign contractors were
killed in two attacks the same day. Those deaths suggested a change in
strategy by the insurgents fighting the American-led occupation, to target
civilians as well as coalition troops. Samarra is just south of Tikrit, the
birthplace of Mr. Hussein and a stronghold of Baathist Party supporters and
Iraqis hostile to the occupation.

      The battle began at 1:30 p.m., as one logistics convoy moved into
Samarra's east end and another into the west part of the city, Sergeant
Cargie said. The attackers had apparently massed for a bold, coordinated
ambush, and the convoys were immediately bombarded with small-arms fire,
mortars, homemade bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. Attackers shot from
the street and from rooftops.

      Some guerrillas had thrown up a makeshift barricade in front of one of
the convoys, but the vehicles immediately barreled through it, Sergeant
Cargie said.

      The First Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment and military police
returned fire, shooting 120-millimeter tank rounds and 25-millimeter cannon
rounds from Bradley fighting vehicles, destroying three buildings used by
attackers for cover.

      The firefights lasted "many minutes" as the convoys raced through the
city, Sergeant Cargie said.

      Another shootout broke out in the city at 2:25 p.m., when four men in
a black BMW fired automatic weapons at soldiers of the 244th Engineer
Battalion, Sergeant Cargie said. The soldiers shot back and wounded all four
men. They searched the car and found three AK-47 rifles and two
rocket-propelled grenades, Sergeant Cargie added.

      Military officials did not publicly report the battle until late
Sunday night, even though a senior military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark
Kimmitt, held a routine news conference on operations at 5 p.m.

      Much of that news conference centered around the increasing danger to
civilians.

      The three foreign contractors killed Sunday near Samarra died within
24 hours of two roadside ambushes that killed nine people from America's
coalition allies, all wearing civilian clothes.

      Two of the three contractors killed Sunday were South Korean
electricians and one was Colombian; they died in two separate attacks on
their cars. On Saturday, two Japanese diplomats stopping for food were
ambushed and killed on the same road, while seven Spaniards traveling in a
two-car convoy were killed by gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades south of
Baghdad.

      The Spaniards were in civilian cars but served as intelligence
officers, the Spanish government said. A crowd of onlookers standing by the
wreckage on Sunday morning grinned and spoke gleefully of the ambush.

      General Kimmitt said it was unclear whether their attackers knew they
worked for a coalition-member government. If the guerrillas did not know
that in advance, he said, then the attack could have been one of
opportunity, supporting the recent trend of targeting foreigners.

      In other violence illustrating the danger on the roads between Baghdad
and Tikrit, attackers opened fire on a Turkish diesel fuel tanker on Sunday
evening, blowing out four of the eight tires, police officers said. The
driver managed to get the tanker to a police station near Samarra. Policemen
quickly showed the truck to a visitor, then locked themselves inside the
station.

      General Kimmitt said the guerrillas seemed to be focusing less on
military targets and more on civilians. "The enemy realizes that attacking a
military target will probably lead to his death or capture," he said. "And
going against soft targets is probably an easier way to achieve what the
enemy is trying to achieve."

      General Kimmitt said the Colombian contractor killed Sunday morning
was traveling in a convoy near the town of Balad, about an hour's drive
north of Baghdad. Attackers fired on the convoy with small arms. Two of the
contractor's colleagues were wounded.

      The two South Koreans were ambushed near Samarra on the way to Tikrit,
where they worked at an electric power transmission station, the South
Korean news agency Yonhap reported, quoting the country's Foreign Ministry
director. They were employees of a company based in Seoul that is under
contract to lay power lines for an American company. Two of their colleagues
were wounded in the attack, and one was in critical condition.

      Lt. Col. William MacDonald, a spokesman for the Fourth Infantry
Division, said the killings of the South Koreans were unrelated to the
convoy attacks, The Associated Press reported.

      The attacks over the weekend concluded a month that was the bloodiest
yet for American soldiers. The body count of 81 surpassed that in April,
when 73 soldiers died during the invasion. Two died on Saturday, when
guerrillas ambushed a convoy east of the town of Husaybah.

      General Kimmitt said the numerous fatalities were partly a result of
more aggressive military operations.

      When you go after the enemy, he said, "you will lose American
soldiers, you will lose coalition soldiers."



      Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy |
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