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US vows to destroy Shiite militia as death toll mounts in Iraq chaos Wed Apr 07 2004 09:28:30 ET US officials vowed Wednesday to hunt down and destroy the militia of a radical Shiite Muslim cleric, as coalition troops struggled to stop Iraq sliding into chaos with more than 150 people killed on both sides in three days of clashes. Battles have flared in towns across southern Iraq since Sunday, with the fiercely anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr attracting growing support from discontented Shiites, angered that change has not come more quickly almost a year since their oppressor Saddam Hussein was ousted. Calm was restored in the Sunni town of Ramadi, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Baghdad on Wednesday, a day after 12 marines were killed there in the worst single day loss for US forces this year. But Ukrainian troops were forced to withdrew from Kut, 180 kilometres (110 miles) south of Baghdad, after heavy fighting with Sadr's supporters who now controlled the city, the Ukrainian defence ministry said. "At the request of the Americans, and to preserve the life of our military, the commander of the Ukrainian contingent decided to evacuate the civil administration staff and Ukrainian troops from Kut," the ministry said in a statement. The troops retreated to their base after fierce fighting which left several dozen Iraqis dead and one Ukrainian soldier. US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt vowed coalition forces would turn the tables on the Mehdi Army and called on Sadr to turn himself in to face murder charges, and help end the violence. "Our offensive operations will be deliberate, they will be precise, and they will be powerful and they will succeed," he pledged. "We are now understanding more and more about the Mehdi Army, how they operate, where they operate, against who they operate," he said. The fierce clashes with Iraq's normally-peaceful Shiite majority in the south have come as surprise to the US-coalition already struggling to contain an uprising by Sunni Muslim loyalists further north in the country. US marines were locked in fierce fighting for the third day with Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, west of Baghdad. Since Tuesday evening some 46 Iraqis had been killed and dozens wounded in the town, hospital sources said. Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne told AFP that US Marines had reached the centre of the flashpoint city. "The marines are now at the center of the city," he told AFP. The marine operation involving some 2,000 troops dubbed "Vigilant Resolve" is aimed at flushing out insurgents who killed four American contractors last week, dragging their burned mutilated bodies through the streets and stringing two from a bridge. All the city mosques were calling for a "jihad" (holy war) against US-led occupation forces amid intense bombardments and aircraft overflights, an AFP correspondent in the town said. The US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has vowed to find those responsible for last week's killings which sparked a wave of international revulsion. The worsening security on the ground which has seen coalition troops from several European countries as well as the US come under fire has prompted growing concern. Italian newspapers warned that the militia were planning to launch simultaneous attacks on coalition forces on Good Friday that could also target foreign civilians working in Iraq. The militia would use rockets and car bombs to launch simultaneous attacks on coalition forces to mark the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime on April 9, the Corriere della Sera said. US President George W. Bush was talking tough, vowing in a speech earlier: "We will not be shaken by the thugs and terrorists. These killers don't have values ... We face tough action in Iraq but we will stay the course." |
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