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Four US Troops in Baghdad Are Killed by Rocket Fire
By Ernesto Londono and Amit R. Paley
The Washington Post
Tuesday 29 April 2008
Month's toll of 44 Americans is highest
since September.
Baghdad, April 28 - Four US soldiers were killed in two rocket attacks in
Baghdad on Monday as clashes between US-backed Iraqi forces and Shiite militiamen
intensified, the military said.
Three soldiers were killed about 1 pm in eastern Baghdad, where fighters loyal
to anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have battled US and Iraqi troops.
The fourth American soldier was killed at 4:15 p.m. in the western part of the
capital, a US military spokesman said. The military provided few other details
about the attacks.
The deaths marked one of the deadliest days for U.S. troops in Iraq since Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive against Shiite militias in the
southern city of Basra in late March, prompting retaliation there and in the
vast Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad. Forty-four U.S. troops have died
in Iraq in April, according to iCasualties.org, which tracks military fatalities,
more than any month since September.
Also Monday, militiamen launched a mortar and rocket attack against a combat
outpost in Sadr City shortly after several top military officials, including
Brig. Gen. William F. Grimsley, had visited. Fifteen U.S. soldiers were injured
in the attack, none seriously, said Lt. Col. Steve Stover, a U.S. military spokesman.
"We will continue fighting to get a safe environment and neighborhood
for the citizens of Sadr City," Grimsley told reporters during his visit
to the outpost.
Elsewhere, U.S. soldiers aboard helicopters and an Abrams tank killed at least
seven people in eastern Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said.
U.S. soldiers came under small-arms attack shortly after 3 p.m. and responded
by firing a Hellfire missile, which killed at least four people, and a round
from an Abrams tank that killed three additional people, the military said.
"I don't know what's going through the enemy's mind when they're firing
at Abrams tanks," Stover said. "The soldiers have a right to protect
themselves."
U.S. officials say they are fighting bands of Iranian-backed militias that
are ignoring a cease-fire order issued by Sadr last year. The cleric has in
recent weeks issued statements saying his followers are being indiscriminately
targeted by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. He has threatened to wage an "open
war" and assailed the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, but has stopped
short of lifting the cease-fire outright.
Meanwhile, rockets continued to strike the Green Zone on Monday, a day after
the fortified enclave that houses U.S. diplomats and Iraqi government officials
was shrouded by a heavy dust storm that grounded U.S. military helicopters,
which fighters with rocket launchers exploited.
Leslie Phillips, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, said the Green
Zone was struck by an undisclosed amount of rocket or mortar fire Monday. She
said she had no reports of embassy personnel being killed or wounded in the
attacks.
Also Monday, U.S. soldiers said they killed 10 suspected Sunni insurgents in
five operations near Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
The clashes in Sadr City, which is home to nearly 3 million people, have exposed
residents to nearly daily fighting, sharply limited their mobility and made
food and medical supplies scarce, according to aid organizations.
President Jalal Talabani met Monday with the speaker of the Iraqi parliament
and political leaders of Sadr's movement to discuss the situation, the president's
office said in a statement. The politicians are trying to alleviate the humanitarian
crisis in Sadr City, where hundreds of people have been killed in recent months,
the statement said.
On Sunday clashes in the densely populated part of the capital killed at least
38 people, the military said. U.S. troops used Abrams tanks Sunday to fend off
at least three attacks, the military said Monday.
That clash started after 6 p.m. in northeastern Baghdad when Iraqi soldiers
manning a checkpoint came under small-arms fire, the U.S. military said in a
statement.
U.S. soldiers on Abrams tanks fired back with 120mm rounds and rifles, killing
at least 22 people, the military said.
Shortly before that confrontation, soldiers on foot in northeastern Baghdad
were attacked with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. Seven of the
suspected attackers were killed when U.S. soldiers struck back from a tank,
the military said.
About 3 p.m. Sunday, the U.S. soldiers on a tank killed a suspected militiaman
after the soldiers were attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, the military
said.
Eight other people the military described in statements as "criminals"
and "evildoers" were killed Sunday in an airstrike and clashes on
the ground, the military said. One of those clashes occurred at 3:15 p.m. when
a U.S. combat outpost came under small-arms fire.
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Staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington and special correspondent
Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad contributed to this report.
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