The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 15, 2004, Page 4, Image 4
WORLDNEWS
Insurgents storm police stations in Mosul
By TINITRAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Insurgents
stormed two police stations Sunday in the
strife-ridden city of Mosul, killing at least
six Iraqi troops as attacks spread
throughout Sunni Muslim areas
following the U.S.-led assault on
Fallujah.
Marines found the mutilated body of
a Western woman as they Searched for
militants still holding out in Fallujah, the
former Sunni insurgent stronghold. The
woman could not be immediately
identified, but a British aide worker and a
Pole are the only Western women known
to have been taken hostage.
At least 38 American troops and six
Iraqi soldiers have been killed in the
fighting in Fallujah. The number of U.S.
troops wounded is now 275, though
more than 60 have returned to duty. U.S.
officials estimated more than .1,200
insurgents were killed in the weeklong
fighting.
“The perception of Fallujah being a
safe haven for terrorists, that perception
and the reality of it will be completely
wiped off before the conclusion of this
operation,” said Lt. Gen. John Satder,
commander of the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force.
U.S. forces have spread throughout
the city although it could take several
more days of fighting before the city is
secured, American officials said. U.S.
forces on Sunday attacked a bunker
complex in southern Fallujah where they
discovered a network of steel-reinforced
tunnels filled with weapons, an anti
aircraft artillery gun, bunk beds, a truck
and a suspected weapons cache,
according to a statement from the U.S.
military.
U.S. aircraft attacked insurgents
hiding “in numerous buildings
throughout the city,” the statement
added.
Fighting in Fallujah was ebbing, but
insurgent attacks appeared to escalate
elsewhere in Sunni Muslim areas of
central and northern Iraq.
Saboteurs set fire Sunday to four oil
wells in Iraq’s northern fields, setting off
successive explosions in Khabbaza, 12
miles northwest of Kirkuk, oil officials
said.
Heavy explosions rattled central
Baghdad near the Palestine and
Sheraton hotels after nightfall Sunday,
followed by bursts of sporadic gunfire.
The U.S. military said initial reports
indicated rockets or mortars had struck
the area, killing two Iraqis and
wounding another.
About an hour later, about four more
large explosions rocked the Green Zone,
headquarters of the U.S. and Iraqi
leadership. At least one private security
guard was killed. Clashes were also
reported on Haifa Street, a center of
insurgent support in the heart of the
capital.
More than a dozen insurgents
attacked the Polish Embassy in Baghdad
with automatic weapons Sunday, and
embassy guards returned fire in an
exchange that lasted for a half hour, a
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said
in Warsaw. No one was reported killed or
wounded.
In Mosul, where an uprising broke
out last week in support of the Fallujah
defenders, militants raided two police
stations, killing at least six Iraqi National
Guards and wounding three others. One
insurgent was killed and three others were
wounded before Iraqi security forces
regained control of both stations,
witnesses said.
Insurgents also set fire to the
governor’s house, destroying it and
damaging his car in northern Mosul.
Governor Duraid Kashmoula also said
the curfew will continue to be imposed
on the city from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
in the morning.
A gunbattle erupted Sunday between
militants and U.S. troops in the main
market in the northern town of Beiji,
killing at least six people and wounding
20 others, according to witnesses.
The clash followed an attack in Beiji
against American soldiers, who
responded with tank rounds and Hellfire
missiles, the U.S. military said.
A dozen explosions rocked an
American base in the western part of
Ramadi, about 30 miles west of Fallujah,
after insurgents fired missiles. Witnesses
reported seeing flames and smoke
billowing from the base.
One U.S. soldier was injured when a
suicide bomber blew up his car near a
U.S. convoy traveling between Balad and
ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Marines of the 1st Division take up position as they advance in the western part of Fallujah, Iraq. The U.S. military’s ground and air
assault of Fallujah has gone quicker than expected, with the entire city occupied after six days of fighting, the Marine commander who
planned the offensive said Sunday.
Tikrit, the military said. A Bradley
fighting vehicle was damaged by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad, injuring one
soldier, the military said.
One Marine and an Iraqi soldier were
hurt when five mortar shells struck a
checkpoint outside Fallujah.
In an interview with Iraqi television
Sunday, interim Prime Minister Allawi
defended his decision to order the attack
on Fallujah, saying he decided to strike
after security forces arrested “two very
important” terrorist organizations. He
did not elaborate.
Allawi said up to 400 insurgents have
been captured, including fighters from
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and
Morocco but he gave no figures.
Despite the ongoing violence, Allawi
ordered Baghdad International Airport to
reopen Sunday and opened all but one
border crossing with Syria. They were
closed under a state of emergency
announced Nov. 7 on the eve of the
Fallujah attack.
In Fallujah, Marines reopened the
infamous bridge over the Euphrates River
where Iraqis strung up the charred bodies
of two American contractors in March.
The brutal slaying and mutilation of the
four Blackwater Security Consulting
employees touched off a Marine assault in
April.
That fight was halted but U.S. forces
attacked again this week, retaking
Fallujah and its bridge from rebels.
“It’s symbolic, because the insurgents
closed the bridge and we rfeopened it,”
said Maj. Todd Des Grosseilliers, of the
3rd Battalion, 5th Marines , before
Marines rolled away a coil of concertina
wire and crossed the span over the
Euphrates River on foot.
On Sunday, Marine and Army units
were still battling small bands of militants
scattered in buildings and bunkers across
the Sunni Muslim stronghold. Behind
them, Iraqi troops were painstakingly
clearing weapons and fighters from every
room of Fallujah’s estimated 50,000
buildings.
ABC pool video footage showed
Marines continuing to search door-to
door, blowing the gates off houses with
explosives. A bit of bright color stood out
on one of the city’s ubiquitous gray,
rubble-strewn streets, a pink dress on the
body of a small child crumpled next to
the curb.
Sunni Muslim militants have cut a
swath of terror across the country with a
string of recent high-profile kidnappings^
The disemboweled body of thv *
woman was wrapped in a blood-soaked
blanket on a street in Fallujah, Marines
said. Margaret Hasson, 59, director of
CARE international in Iraq, and Teresa
Borcz Khalifa, 54, a Polish-born
longtime resident of Iraq, were
abducted last month but the body
could not be identified without further
tests.
NASSER SHIYOUKHI/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestine Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas leaves the former
headquarters of Yasser Arafat in.the west bank city df Ramallah.
Abbas escapes gunmen attack
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —
Mahmoud Abbas, temporary successor to
Yasser Arafat, was attacked in his
mourning tent by militants Sunday, but
escaped the gunmen, who melted into
the crowd outside.
Abbas has been trying to send a
message of unity since Arafat’s death
Thursday. Arafat’s responsibilities were
divided among several leaders, and
officials held talks with rival factions in
Arafat’s Fatah movement and the
militant opposition groups Hamas and
Islamic Jihad.
However, those rivalries burst into the
open minutes after Abbas, the new PLO
chief, entered the Gaza City mourning
tent, where some 10,000 people,
including about 3,000 armed men, most
of them police officers, gathered Sunday
evening. Abbas, accompanied by Gaza
strongman Mohammed Dahlan and
surrounded by security guards, shook
hands with mourners.
Moments later, a group of at least 20
gunmen barged into the tent shouting,
“Abbas and Dahlan are agents for the
Americans!"
Gunfire then popped through the
tent. It appears most of the shots
were fired in the air, the casualty toll
likely would have been far higher had
the gunmen taken aim at the large
crowd.
Abbas’ bodyguards husded him into a
corner as frightened mourners scrambled
over plastic chairs to flee. Abbas was
taken to Palestinian headquarters.
The gunmen reportedly melted into
the gigantic crowd and escaped arrest.
Speaking to reporters, Abbas tried to
play down the incident.
“While we were receiving
condolences, a huge crowd gathered there
and then random shooting broke out, but
not in my direction,” he said.
Abbas said he did not hear any slogans
against him and planned to continue
talks with rival Palestinian factions.
Abbas has tried in the past, as prime
minister, to persuade militants to halt
attacks on Israel.
However, militants signaled Sunday
they were not interested in a cease-fire. In
a Gaza City parade, masked militants
unveiled a new rocket, which they
claimed had an extended range that could
reach the southern Israeli city of
Ashkelon. The long, green “Al-Yasser 1 ”
rocket, named after Arafat, was shown to
a cheering crowd as Palestinian security
looked on.
Sunday’s - shooting raised questions
about the ability of the Palestinians to
carry out their election peacefully.
Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, is
widely expected to run for Palestinian
Authority president. However, victory is
far from certain. None of the likely
candidates, including Abbas, has the
stature of Arafat, and many Palestinians
consider Abbas’ generation of politicians
to be tainted by corruption and out of
touch with the masses.
“They realize very clearly that without
a popular mandate, they can’t make any
important decisions,” said Mouin
Rabbani, senior Middle East analyst with
the International Crisis Group in
Amman, Jordan.
Abbas is expected to be a nominee of
Arafat’s dominant Fatah movement, but
not necessarily the only one. He told the
Arab satellite TV station A1 Jazeera that
Fatah would soon choose a candidate.
Marwan Barghouti, a leader of the
Palestinian uprising who is jailed by
Israel, plans to run, according to a person
close to him. In recent opinion polls^| J
Barghouti emerged as the most popular
politician after Arafat.
Abdel Sattar Qassem, a political
science professor and political outsider,
said he plans to run as an independent
candidate. Qassem, a leading Arafat
critic, said his campaign would focus on
cleaning up corruption in the Palestinian
Authority.
The largest opposition group, Hamas,
also is considering whether to field a
candidate.
Who emerges as the winner could
• largely depend on Israel and whether
Abbas can produce results during the
next two months.
Israeli officials say privately they
would like to bolster Abbas, but fear any
public embrace of him will weaken his
standing.
Palestinian officials called for
international pressure on Israel to easej |
conditions in Palestinian areas to permit^ "
the vote to go smoothly.
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The Government of Japan Invites Young Graduates to
Spend a Year Teaching English in Japan
Now accepting applications for the 2005 Japan Exchange
and Teaching (JET) Program. Deadline is December 1,2004.
For more information contact the Consulate General of Japan
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All majors welcome to apply.
Must have a bachelor’s degree by July 1, 2005.
Knowledge of Japanese NOT required.
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