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| April ends: Baghdad clashes 'leave 400 dead' | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 30 2008, 10:30 AM (133 Views) | |
| mynameis | Apr 30 2008, 10:30 AM Post #1 |
Internet Jujitsu
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Baghdad clashes 'leave 400 dead' Coffin is lifted onto minivan outside Sadr City hospital in Baghdad - 30/4/2008 Hospitals say they are struggling to cope with the casualties More than 400 people have been killed in fighting over the last month between Shia gunmen and US and Iraqi forces, hospital officials in Baghdad say. The Sadr City district of the Iraqi capital has seen most of the fighting as the government tries to disarm members of Shia militias. Two US soldiers have died in the latest Baghdad clashes, the US military said. April has been the most lethal month for US troops in Iraq, with 46 deaths, since September, when 65 soldiers died. The US military said both soldiers died in the north-west of the city on Tuesday night in separate attacks. One soldier was killed when he came under small-arms fire, the other died when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. Hospitals 'struggling' The casualties came as US and Iraqi forces engage militants loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr in intensive fighting in Baghdad. The clashes flared up on Sunday after militia members attacked coalition positions during a sandstorm. An Iraqi boy peers through rubble after an airstrike in eastern Baghdad 29/4 Many civilians have been caught up in the Baghdad clashes The US military said at least 28 militants were killed during battles in the Sadr City area of the capital on Tuesday, while four US soldiers were killed by rocket and mortar fire in the east of the capital on Monday. The two main hospitals in Sadr City are struggling to cope with the recent influx of casualties, officials at the Imam Ali and the al Sadr General hospitals have said. More than 400 people have died and almost 2,500 others have been injured since the end of March, the hospitals have said. Staff at the hospitals are worried they are running out of clean water and do not have enough severe trauma specialists to treat all those who need help, says the BBC's Clive Myrie in Baghdad. Deal rejected Last week Moqtada Sadr told his supporters that while they should continue "resisting" what he called the US "occupation" of Iraq, they should not fight Iraqis. But he has also rejected the Iraqi government's conditions for ending the crackdown on Shia militias. These include militias handing in their weapons and handing over fighters wanted by the authorities. Doctors in Baghdad say more than 50 civilians were injured in the fighting on Tuesday. An independent website, icasualties.org, estimates that 4,058 US soldiers, and 310 soldiers from other nations, have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Another website run by academics and peace activists, iraqbodycount.net, estimates up to 90,782 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the same period. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7374948.stm |
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| Reggie_perrin | Apr 30 2008, 12:10 PM Post #2 |
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080430/ts_afp/iraqunrestsadrcity Sadr City bloodshed kills 925 Iraqis BAGHDAD (AFP) - Clashes between Shiite militiamen and security forces have killed more than 900 people in Baghdad's Sadr City, an Iraqi official said on Wednesday, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to keep up the offensive. ADVERTISEMENT The latest death toll from the Sadr City fighting that erupted late last month is set to make April the deadliest month this year, denting US and Iraqi government claims of improved security. "There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2,605 others have been wounded," Tehseen Sheikhly, spokesman for the government's Baghdad security plan, told reporters. Fierce clashes between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen, mostly from the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, broke out after Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias in the main southern city of Basra on March 25. The crackdown triggered an eruption of violence across Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly Sadr City, Baghdad's most populous Shiite district and a bastion of the Mahdi Army. On Wednesday, fresh clashes left another 13 militants killed, the American military said. In one firefight, seven militants were killed after US soldiers were targeted by mortar fire in the southern sector of Sadr City, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover told AFP. It was not immediately clear whether the deaths of 13 militants were included in the overall toll given by Sheikhly. The clashes have also inflicted a heavy toll on US forces. At least 21 soldiers have been killed in Baghdad in April, a significant number of them in and around Sadr City. The US military has in April lost at least 47 soldiers across Iraq, making it the deadliest month since last September when 65 troops were killed, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org. Iraqi casualty figures for April from government ministries were not expected before Thursday but in March at least 1,082 people were killed, according to the figures. Those losses, contrasting with the 721 recorded in February, confirmed a resurgence in bloodshed from the falling figures through the second half of last year. The US military has vowed to press its fight against the "criminals" in Sadr City in the face of persistent rocket and mortar fire against the heavily-fortified Green Zone that houses the Iraqi government and US embassy. On Wednesday, Maliki accused the militiamen of using civilians as "human shields" while fighting the security forces. "Criminals and lawless gangs are using human shields in Sadr City ... They are following the steps of the Baathist regime," Maliki told a press conference. "They are trying to gain sympathy but they are using the lies and the values of the former regime" of executed dictator Saddam Hussein. The US military says that gunmen have been firing at troops from rooftops, alleways and houses resulting in firefights in which civilians are often killed. Maliki vowed to disband the Mahdi Army as well as Sunni insurgent groups, particularly Al-Qaeda. "We will not allow scavengers in Iraq. The suffering will not be long in Sadr City. We will save our brothers," he said. The premier accused the militias of forcing Sadr City residents to stay at home out of fear. "I do not know how those people use the (Shiite religious) names we respect like Mahdi and Sadr," he said. Maliki was alluding to Moqtada's father Grand Ayatollah Mohamed Sadeq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite spiritual leader before his assassination, as well as Imam al-Mahdi, a central figure in the faith. |
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1:49 AM Nov 29
