Houston Chronicle : Sadr City raid raises questions about casualties

Sadr City raid raises questions about casualties

U.S. military, Iraqis differ over the numbers and whether civilians are included

By ALISSA J. RUBIN | New York Times | October 21, 2007

BAGHDAD — American forces on Sunday came under heavy fire in three locations in Sadr City, the Shiite enclave in Baghdad, and returned fire, killing 49 militants, said an American military official and a military statement about the incident.

Iraqi witnesses said that 17 people had been killed, but that one of them was an elderly woman and that of 40 people who had been wounded, a number were children.

At least four of the wounded children were at Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City, with family members helping the overtaxed hospital staff and anxiously hovering over the children.

Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki said in a statement that the American military should avoid using excessive force that ran the risk of harming civilians and that the government would investigate the episode. However, he did not condemn the attack outright.

The Iraqi government has given tacit approval for a number of similar American raids on both Sunni and Shiite militants.

Truce broken?

In the operation on Sunday, American soldiers were searching for an Iraqi who is believed to be in charge of a kidnapping ring. "Our objective was to go in and locate one high-value target responsible for an extensive Iranian-backed kidnapping ring," said the military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the military is still gathering data about the attack.

The operation failed to capture the man, but as it was under way, American soldiers came under heavy fire from gunmen using automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, the statement said.

The soldiers called for air support and the military said that at least 33 people were killed by ground fire in the initial engagement and six others by air support. As the American forces tried to leave the area, heavy fire continued and the attackers detonated a roadside bomb.

Another 10 Iraqis were killed as Americans attempted to withdraw.

Although the area has been controlled by the militia of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, it has been quiet since late August when al-Sadr asked them to lay down their arms.

The truce has allowed the American military to focus its attacks on people who have continued to fight despite al-Sadr's call for a truce. The military contends that at least some of those still fighting have links to Iran.

Facts in question

An official at Imam Ali Hospital, Abu Ibrahim, said that an elderly woman whose midsection had been nearly severed by shrapnel died this evening, bringing the total dead at the hospital to 16. There were 38 wounded who came to the hospital, he said. Officials at a second hospital in the neighborhood reported one dead and two wounded.

The military said it did not believe there were any civilian deaths as a result of the fighting. "Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," said the military statement.

The episode highlights the difficulty of determining the facts after military operations, especially ones involving firefights in which much happens quickly. The military said that the reason so few bodies were taken to hospitals is that the militants pick up the bodies of their own people to prevent the American soldiers from gaining intelligence about them.

However, often the opposite is true — with Iraqi casualty figures far higher than U.S. ones. In those cases, the U.S. military sometimes says that the discrepancy is a result of exaggeration by Iraqis. In any incident it is hard to tell which factors play the most important roles.

Reuters : At least 13 killed in U.S. Baghdad strikes: police

At least 13 killed in U.S. Baghdad strikes: police

October 21, 2007

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. air strikes killed at least 13 people and wounded 52 early on Sunday in the northeastern Baghdad district of Sadr city, a stronghold for Shi'ite militants, two police sources said.

The U.S. military confirmed it had conducted early morning operations in Sadr city "targeting criminals believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of coalition soldiers in November 2006 and May 2007."

The poor district is a stronghold for followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and has witnessed frequent clashes between U.S. forces and militants.

The U.S. commander for Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, said in September that while security was getting better in some parts of Baghdad following a U.S. crackdown, areas such as Sadr city were likely to continue to see higher violence.

Two polices sources said the death toll was 13, including women and children, and that 52 had been wounded in the strikes. One of the sources said the U.S. raids came after a U.S. vehicle was targeted by a roadside bomb.

"I don't yet have details on the number of terrorists killed, but I can say that we don't have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded," said a spokesman for U.S. forces.

"Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make every effort to protect innocent civilians."

One of the police sources said the strikes left several houses, shops and cars ablaze.

A health ministry source said 10 bodies and 42 wounded had been taken to Imam Ali hospital in Sadr city while another body and 25 wounded had been received at a second hospital there.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Malaysia Sun : Criminals and civilians killed in Iraq operation

Criminals and civilians killed in Iraq operation

Malaysia Sun | October 21, 2007

The U.S military says forty-nine Iraqi criminals have been killed in three separate raids in Sadr City in the capital, Baghdad.

The criminals had allegedly been involved in kidnap operations.

Sadr City, the home of radical sheik, Moqtada Sadr, has lately been the scene of fierce fighting between militants and U.S forces.

U.S military officials say their troops returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades as they raided buildings in the district.

An official loyal to Moqtada Sadr said the attack was simply barbaric as most of those killed and wounded were women, children and elderly men.

WSWS : US raid on Baghdad’s Sadr City leaves many dead and wounded

US raid on Baghdad’s Sadr City leaves many dead and wounded

By Bill Van Auken | 22 October 2007

A violent US assault on Baghdad’s Sadr City Sunday left many people dead—49 according to the military’s own count—and scores more wounded. The foray into the crowded and impoverished Shia neighborhood, home to an estimated 3 million people, was launched before dawn and quickly escalated as American forces called in air strikes that left houses, stores and cars destroyed and in flames.

US military spokesmen described the dead as “criminals.” Major Winfield Danielson told the media: “I can say that we don’t have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded. Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make every effort to protect innocent civilians.”

The evidence, however, was impossible to ignore. Television footage from the scene showed the bloodied bodies of two slain toddlers, one in diapers, at the local morgue. The Reuters news agency reported: “In a house where one of the children lived, a man pointed to bloodstained mattresses and blood-splattered pillows, choking back tears as he held up a photo of one of the dead.”

The local Imam Ali hospital was overwhelmed with casualties, including children, women and the elderly. The bodies of those slain were placed in coffins covered with the Iraqi flag. Angry crowds marched through the streets of Sadr City carrying the coffins.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh charged that all those killed in the raid were civilians and said that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had met with US commander General David Petraeus to protest the killings.

No American casualties were reported in the action.

According to spokesmen for the US occupation forces, the raid had been launched in a bid to capture a so-called high-value target. The military issued a statement saying that “The operation’s objective was an individual reported to be a long-time Special Groups member specializing in kidnapping operations.”

“Special Groups” is a category invented by the US military authorities, meant to describe those in the Shia areas who are perceived as an opposing the American occupation. The Pentagon has used this jargon to portray the resistance as the work of “rogue” elements directed, trained and armed by Iran.

An Iraqi police source, however, was quoted by the Al Jazeera news agency as saying that the raid was launched, apparently in retaliation, after a US vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

The accounts that have emerged thus far suggest that the attempts by US troops to move into the neighborhood in the pre-dawn hours provoked unanticipated resistance, including small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The ground forces responded by calling in air strikes by US jet fighters and helicopter gunships.

It appears that many of those killed died in their sleep, either killed on their roofs where Baghdad residents frequently go to escape the heat, or from shells and missiles that smashed into their homes.

According to the Associated Press: “A local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah said his neighbor’s 14-year-old son, Saif Alwan, was killed while sleeping on the roof.

“‘Saif was killed by an air strike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student,’ Abu Fatmah said.

“An uncle of 2-year-old Ali Hamid said the boy was killed and his parents seriously wounded when helicopter gunfire pierced the wall and windows of their house as they slept indoors.”

The carnage in Sadr City erupted in the context of intensified US attacks throughout Iraq. Just a day earlier, US troops raided neighborhoods in the southern city of Diwaniyah, supposedly in search of leaders of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. US attack helicopters were called in and fired on the area, destroying at least five homes. The US military reported detaining 30 people in the raid, while again claiming that the bombardment caused no civilian casualties.

On October 11, US air strikes against a home in Samarra killed 34 people, including nine children, one of the deadliest such attacks to be acknowledged by the US military since the 2003 invasion.

There is growing evidence that the use of air strikes against the Iraqi people has grown considerably since the military “surge” ordered by the Bush administration at the beginning of the year, even as it goes largely unreported by the US media.

The US Air Force posts daily accounts of its operations, listing between 50 and 70 “close-air-support missions” each day. According to a survey by the Associated Press, the number of bombs dropped by US war planes on Iraq increased fivefold during the first six months of 2007, compared to the same period a year earlier. The Air Force has for the first time this year deployed powerful B1-B bombers in Iraq, capable of carrying up to 24 tons of bombs.

This increasing use of air power inevitably entails a growing toll in terms of civilian dead and wounded, referred to by military officials a “collateral damage.” The study of excess Iraqi deaths published in the authoritative British medical journal Lancet a year ago estimated that 13 percent of all violent deaths in Iraq were caused by US air strikes. The report’s authors estimated that these strikes were responsible for fully 50 percent of the violent deaths of children under the age of 15.

The increasing use of such air power—and the indiscriminate bloodshed that it entails—is a measure of the growing crisis of the American occupation and the Pentagon’s fears about the demoralization and disintegration of US ground forces in Iraq. The deliberate aerial bombardment of crowded civilian neighborhoods—a war crime—is designed both to further terrorize the Iraqi population and cut the number of US casualties.

On Saturday, US troops also raided and ransacked the headquarters of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) in Baghdad, leaving it in a shambles. The IIP, which is the largest Sunni party in Iraq, is led by Iraq’s Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.

Al-Hashemi has provoked the ire of both Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki, and the US occupation authorities in recent weeks with his highly publicized visits to crowded detention camps, where predominantly Sunni prisoners have told him that they are innocent, have been arrested without charges and have been subjected to torture.

The United Nations humanitarian mission in Iraq recently released a report estimating that there were some 44,000 detainees in Iraqi or US custody as of last June—a total that had increased by at least 10 percent just over the previous two months as a result of increased US raids. No doubt this prison population has grown sharply since then.

The UN report cited “widespread and routine torture and ill-treatment of detainees.”

“In addition to routine beatings with hosepipes, cables and other implements,” the report states, “the methods cited included prolonged suspension from the limbs in contorted and painful positions for extended periods, sometimes resulting in dislocation of the joints, electric shocks to sensitive parts of the body; the breaking of limbs; forcing detainees to sit on sharp objects, causing serious injury and heightening the risk of infection; and severe burns to parts of the body through the application of heated implements.”

Meanwhile, one of Washington’s principal Iraqi collaborators and an architect of the US-imposed regime declared in a television interview that the American intervention has brought only “chaos and instability.”

Feisal Amin Istrabadi, who resigned in August as Iraq’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told NBC News Friday that “there is no Iraqi government,” only an “appearance of institutions.”

Istrabadi, a US-born lawyer who was a leading figure among the exile circles promoting a US invasion and later played the key role in drafting Iraq’s interim constitution, blamed the catastrophe confronting Iraq on Washington’s drive to hold early elections in which the population was pushed to support competing ethno-religious-based parties.

“What did we accomplish, exactly [with] this push towards an appearance of institutions ... merely an appearance?” he asked. “Except that an American politician can stand up and say, ‘Look what we accomplished in Iraq.’ When in fact, what we accomplished in Iraq over the last three years has been chaos and instability.”

Austin-American Statesman : U.S., Iraq differ on toll after Sadr City raid

U.S., Iraq differ on toll after Sadr City raid

Military says 49 combatants were killed; Iraq puts number at 15 and says all were civilians

By Christian Berthelsen | LOS ANGELES TIMES | October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. forces engaged in an hours-long gunbattle with militants during an early morning raid in the Shiite Muslim district of Sadr City on Sunday, killing as many as 49 people in what would be one of the highest tolls for a single operation since President Bush declared an end to active combat in 2003.

Iraqi police and hospital officials reported only 15 deaths, including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that all the dead were civilians.

The U.S. military said that all of those killed were "criminals." Officials did not explain how they arrived at the casualty figures or explain the discrepancy between their total and that of the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement demanding that the United States not use such overwhelming force in pursuing targets and that it should further coordinate its efforts with Iraqi government forces. He said the Iraqi government would conduct an investigation.

A freelance correspondent for the Los Angeles Times said he saw the corpses of a woman and two small children.

Among the wounded were an 8-year-old and an 11-year-old boy, who were interviewed in their beds at Imam Ali hospital by the Times. Another man said his 1½-year old son was killed, as well as a neighbor's son the same age.

U.S. officials said the raid did not capture or kill its target, identified as the leader of a kidnapping cell that is part of a Shiite militant movement called the Special Groups. It is a splinter group of the Mahdi Army no longer following orders from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has ordered gunmen loyal to him to put down their arms.

The Special Groups are thought by American officials to be trained, funded and supplied by Iran through its Revolutionary Guard forces.

The White House declined to comment on the clash.

Sunday's fighting follows incidents in recent weeks in which U.S. forces killed 15 civilians in an attack on alleged leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, and Western private security contractors shot and killed unarmed Iraqi civilians, inflaming anti-U.S. sentiment.

In Parliament on Sunday, Iraqi officials discussed the possibility of placing restrictions on U.S. military operations in Iraq when it negotiates the terms of the U.N. resolution that authorizes the U.S. presence here. The resolution comes up for its annual reauthorization before year's end.

In the Sadr City raid, U.S. troops returned fire while under attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began raiding structures in the district, according to a military statement.

They also called in helicopter airstrikes. As U.S. soldiers left the zone, troops were hit by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire.

The military said it was "unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation."

Iraqi witnesses told a largely similar version in which combatants in the neighborhood began firing on the U.S. troops, but details differed widely from the American accounts about who was injured and killed.

Additional material from The Associated Press.

Huliq : Fury as US 'kills 49' in Baghdad raid

Fury as US 'kills 49' in Baghdad raid

October 22, 2007

The Iraqi government has protested against a raid by US forces in Baghdad on Sunday, in which the military said 49 gunmen were killed in fierce fighting, but police and witnesses said claimed the lives of many civilians.

The fighting erupted during an operation in Sadr City, the main stronghold of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, to capture an Iranian-linked militant suspected of abducting US-led coalition soldiers and other foreigners.

Iraqi police said 13 civilians were killed and 69 wounded in the clashes, in which the US military said troops backed by attack helicopters battled militants armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns.

Two of the victims were toddlers, Reuters Television pictures showed.

The US military said it had no confirmation of any civilian casualties.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki protested about the "excessive force" against civilians in the Sadr City raid in his weekly meeting with General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in an interview with CNN.

Iraqi officials have criticised the US military in the past for operations that have resulted in the loss of civilian life, especially the use of air strikes in built-up areas.

General Petraeus's spokesman, Colonel Steve Boylan, said it had been agreed to establish a committee that would consist of Iraqi cabinet officials and US general officers to "review the case and to refine mechanisms for the future".

Black smoke

Clouds of black smoke rose from Sadr City, a sprawling slum of some 2 million people in northern Baghdad, as sirens wailed, heavy gunfire echoed and US attack helicopters circled above.

A US military official said the target of the raid was suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of "coalition force members and other foreigners" in May this year and last November. The official did not say whether he had been captured.

A US army translator was kidnapped last October, and in May three US soldiers and five Britons - four security contractors and a civilian - were abducted in two incidents.

"The operation's objective was an individual reported to be a long-time Special Groups member specialising in kidnapping operations. Intelligence indicates he ... has previously sought funding from Iran," the US military said in a statement.

"Special Groups" is US military jargon for rogue Mehdi Army units they say receive funding, training and weapons from neighbouring Iran.

The US military said its soldiers came under heavy machine gun and rocket-propelled-grenade fire from neighbouring buildings at the start of the raid. Troops returned fire, killing 33. Six more gunmen were killed in air strikes.

As the raiding party began withdrawing from the area, they continued to come under fire and were struck by a roadside bomb. The military said soldiers shot back, killing 10 gunmen.

"Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said.

Blood-stained mattresses

Local hospitals said they had received 12 bodies and 65 wounded, including eight women and children.

The bodies of the two slain toddlers, one in a nappy, lay on blankets in the morgue of Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City, where doctors tended to wounded men, some elderly, and boys, Reuters Television footage showed.

In a house where one of the children lived, a man pointed to bloodstained mattresses and blood-splattered pillows, choking back tears as he held up a photo of one of the dead.

Hundreds of local residents, wailing and chanting "There is no God but Allah", carried wooden coffins through the streets.

Moqtada al-Sadr froze the activities of the Mehdi Army at the end of August for six months after 52 were killed in gun battles between rival Shiite militias in the city of Kerbala.

© 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Citizen (Zambia) : 10 killed in clashes with US in Baghdad Shiite bastion

10 killed in clashes with US in Baghdad Shiite bastion

BAGHDAD (AFP) | October 22, 2007

US soldiers fire a mortar during a clearing operation outside Baquba, 09 October 2007. Fierce fighting between American air and ground troops and militants in Baghdad's Sadr City killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 40.

Fierce fighting between American air and ground troops and militants in Baghdad's Sadr City killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 40 early on Sunday, medics and security officials said.

The US military said the firefight broke out when ground forces came under attack during an operation aimed at capturing an individual from a group involved in kidnappings.

It said "six criminals" were killed in the firefight.

The clashes erupted as American forces launched a raid in the impoverished neighbourhood which is loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, security officials said.

Medics at Sadr City's Imam Ali Hospital and Sadr Hospital confirmed the casualties and said the dead included a child and a girl, without elaborating.

US military spokesman Major Winfield S. Danielson told AFP there were no civilian casualties.

"I can say that we don't have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded. Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make very effort to protect innocent civilians."

In a separate statement the US military said the operation was "intelligence-driven," and had targeted an individual from a special group involved in kidnappings.

During the operation "coalition forces were engaged in a firefight that resulted in the killing of an estimated six criminals", it said.

The targeted individual is a "well-known cell leader and has previously sought funding from Iran to carry out high profile kidnappings," it added.

The military said its troops were attacked by machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Sadr City during the operation.

"Supporting aircraft was called in to suppress the enemy fire, killing an estimated six criminals," it said.

"Upon departing the target area, Coalition forces were attacked with an improvised explosive device. Initial reports indicate that no civilians or Coalition forces were killed or injured in the operation."

A US Apache gunship helicopter fires during an operation outside Baquba, 08 october 2007. Fierce fighting between American air and ground troops and militants in Baghdad's Sadr City killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 40.

The US military has regularly targeted Sadr's Mahdi Army militia which it accuses of being involved in sectarian killings of Iraqi Sunni Arabs.

In August Sadr declared a six-month freeze on the activities of the militia, including a halt to attacks on US-led coalition troops in Iraq.

The American military has welcomed the freeze but continues to target fighters who it says have broken away from the main force of the Mahdi Army and formed special groups allegedly aided by Iranian groups.

"We continue to support the Government of Iraq in welcoming the commitment by Moqtada al-Sadr to stop attacks and we will continue to show restraint in dealing with those who honour his pledge," the military statement said.

"We will not show the same restraint against those criminals who dishonour this pledge by attacking security forces and Iraqi citizens," said military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson.

© 2007 AFP

Gulf Daily News : Toddlers killed

Toddlers killed

October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD: The US military said it had killed 49 "criminals" in clashes in Sadr City yesterday in a raid to capture a militant suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of US soldiers.

Witnesses said US strikes had killed two toddlers in the poor district, the main stronghold in Baghdad for the Mehdi Army, a Shi'ite militia loyal to cleric Moqtada Al Sadr.

Iraqi police said 13 people had been killed and 69 wounded.

The bodies of the toddlers, one in a nappy, lay on blankets in the morgue of Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City where doctors tended to wounded men, some elderly, and boys.

AP : US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN | October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD (AP) — U.S. forces backed by airstrikes raided Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite district, killing 49 militants on Sunday as they targeted a militia leader accused in high-profile kidnappings, the military said. Iraqi officials said women and children were among the dead.

The Iraqi reports followed other recent claims of civilian deaths as a result of U.S. military action or shootings by private Western security teams protecting American diplomats and aid groups. The military said it was not know of any civilians killed.

Tensions also rose in northern Iraq after separatist Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq, killing at least 12 soldiers. Turkey's government has threatened to take action against the rebels based in northern Iraq if the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq does not stop the Kurdish attacks on Turkish forces.

Hours after the ambush, an Iraqi army officer from the border guard forces, Col. Hussein Rashid, said Turkish forces fired about 15 artillery shells toward Kurdish villages in the border area in northern Iraq. But there were no casualties.

In Sadr City, the U.S. military said "an estimated 49 criminals" were killed in three separate engagements during a raid targeting a suspected rogue Shiite militia leader specializing in kidnapping operations for which he sought funding from Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began to raid a series of buildings in the district, according to a statement, which added that some 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in airstrikes, which killed some six militants.

The U.S. troops were then attacked by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire as they left the area, killing another 10 combatants in subsequent clashes.

"All total, coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said in the updated statement.

Iraqi police and hospital officials put the death toll at at least 13 and said a woman and three children were among the dead from the pre-dawn raid in the sprawling district. They said 52 people were injured.

Associated Press photos showed the bodies of two toddlers, one with a gouged face, swaddled in blankets on the floor of the morgue. Relatives said they were killed when helicopter gunfire hit their house as they slept. Their shirts were pulled up, exposing their abdomens. A diaper showed above the waistband of the shorts of one of the boys.

Several houses, cars and shops were damaged in the fighting, which witnesses said lasted two hours.

Iraqis have routinely claimed civilians were killed as U.S.-led forces stepped up raids to try to root out extremists in Sadr City and other Shiite strongholds as part of an 8-month-old security operation to quell sectarian violence.

But the reported death toll in Sunday's strike was among the largest.

On Aug. 8, the U.S. military said 32 suspected militants were killed and 12 captured in an operation targeting a ring believed to be smuggling armor-piercing roadside bombs from Iran. Iraqi police and witnesses claimed nine civilians, including two women, were killed in that raid.

The sweeps into Sadr City have sent a strong message that U.S. forces plan no letup on suspected Shiite militia cells despite risks of upsetting the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and its efforts at closer cooperation with Shiite heavyweight Iran.

An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the government would ask the military for an explanation about Sunday's raid and stressed the need to avoid civilian deaths everywhere.

The government has had mixed reactions to the raids and airstrikes, particularly when they target Sunni extremists.

U.S. troops backed by attack aircraft also killed 19 suspected insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, in an operation Oct. 11 targeting al-Qaida in Iraq leaders northwest of Baghdad.

In that case, al-Maliki's government said the killings of the 15 women and children were a "sorrowful matter," but added that civilian deaths are unavoidable in the fight against al-Qaida.

Relatives gathered at Sadr City's Imam Ali hospital as the emergency room was overwhelmed with bloodied victims and the dead were placed in caskets covered by Iraqi flags.

An initial military statement e-mailed to The Associated Press said the raids were targeting "criminals believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of coalition soldiers in November 2006 and May 2007."

However a later release said only that U.S. troops, acting on intelligence, raided a number of buildings in an operation targeting a rogue Shiite militia leader specializing in Iranian-funded kidnappings.

The military said it was targeting a member of a breakaway faction of the Mahdi Army militia that is nominally loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr. The anti-American cleric has called on his fighters to stand down.

At the Imam Ali hospital, a local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah said his neighbor's 14-year-old son, Saif Alwan, was killed while sleeping on the roof. Fatmah said many of the casualties were people sleeping on the roof to seek relief from the hot weather and lack of electricity.

"Saif was killed by an airstrike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student," Abu Fatmah said.

An uncle of 2-year-old Ali Hamid said the boy was killed and his parents seriously wounded when heavy gunfire from a helicopter struck the wall and windows of their house as they slept indoors.

APTN video showed a U.S. helicopter flying over the area while black smoke rose into the sky.

Other footage showed three bloodied boys sitting on hospital tables and an elderly man being treated for a head wound.

Mourners tied wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans with the plume of smoking rising in the background.

AP : 13 Said Killed As U.S. Stages Iraq Raid

13 Said Killed As U.S. Stages Iraq Raid

October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD (AP) — Backed by air power, U.S. forces targeting militants believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of two coalition soldiers raided the main Shiite district in Baghdad on Sunday.

Iraqi officials said at least 13 people were killed and dozens were wounded.

The U.S. military said troops staged early morning operations in Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraqi police and hospital officials said helicopters and jet fighters bombed buildings during the 5 a.m. raid in the sprawling district and at least 13 people died, including a woman and three children, and 52 were wounded.

Several houses and stores were damaged.

The military statement said only that the raids were targeting "criminals believed to be responsible for the kidnapping of coalition soldiers in November 2006 and May 2007."

It did not provide more details but said there was not evidence of civilian casualties.

"I don't yet have details on the number of terrorists killed, but I can say that we don't have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded," spokesman Lt. Justin Cole said in an e-mail. "Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make every effort to protect innocent civilians."

He said aircraft were used but was not more specific.

Relatives gathered at the Imam Ali hospital as the emergency room was overwhelmed with bloodied victims and the dead were placed in caskets covered by Iraqi flags.

"The 14-year-old child of my neighbor called Saif was killed by an airstrike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student," said a local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah.

He apparently was referring to 14-year-old student Saif Alwan, whose uncle said was killed while sleeping on the roof, wearing a white robe. The uncle added that Saif's mother and father were seriously wounded.

Fatmah said many of the casualties were people sleeping on the roof to seek relief from the hot weather and lack of electricity.

AP Television news showed a U.S. helicopter flying over the area while black smoke rose into the sky. Other footage showed three bloodied boys sitting on hospital tables and an elderly man being treated for a head wound.

Mourners tied wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans while a plume of black smoke rose in the background.

CSM : US targeted Iran-tied group in raid

US targeted Iran-tied group in raid

In a Sunday attack in Baghdad, US forces sought members of 'Special Groups,' its name for Mahdi Army offshoots it says have Iranian ties. At least 49 Iraqis were killed.

By Sam Dagher | CSM Correspondent | October 22, 2007

Baghdad - US forces further intensified their offensive against the Shiite militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric, conducting a ground and air operation Sunday in Baghdad's teeming Sadr City slum. The attack left at least 49 militants dead, according to an American military statement.

The US military said it was going after rogue elements of the Mahdi Army that it calls "Special Groups," which the US says receive funding, training, and weapons from Iran. The target of this operation, they said, specialized in "kidnapping operations."

Last October, a US Army translator was kidnapped, and in May three US soldiers and five Britons – four security contractors and a civilian – were abducted in separate incidents.

Fighting started when soldiers were attacked with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from buildings at the start of the raid. Troops returned fire, killing 33. Six more gunmen were killed in air strikes. Another 10 militants were killed in additional clashes when US troops were attacked as they left the area, added the military.

"Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," said the US statement, without indicating whether the target of the operation was detained or killed.

But in what has become a classic pattern of events in the aftermath of similar operations in Sadr City, both witnesses and officials from Mr. Sadr's movement who live in the area gave a different death toll and version of events.

Salah al-Okaili, a Sadrist parliamentarian, said at least 10 people were killed and 62 wounded, most of them civilians. Another resident, Rahim Abdel-Karim, said funerals for 15 people killed in the operation were held in the area.

State-funded Al Iraqiya television gave a toll of 10 killed and 30 wounded, adding that most of those killed were civilians. It showed footage of women wailing and slapping their faces at funeral processions. The Associated Press said it had photos and video footage of dead and wounded children from the operation.

The operation comes a day after US and Iraqi forces arrested 30 fighters linked to Sadr's militia in the city of Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, which has seen renewed fighting and a series of attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces in the province of Qadisiyah last week that have left at least 13 Iraqis dead.

Last week, US and Iraqi forces also arrested two members of the provincial council in Diwaniyah from the Sadrist movement on charges of being linked to the militia, according to Nassar al-Rubaie, another Sadrist member of the Iraqi parliament.

Commenting on the US raid in Sadr City, Mr. Rubai said, "It's barbaric, disgusting, and against all international conventions. Most of those killed were women and children." Sadr City is home to one-third of Baghdad estimated 5 million residents.

In both Sadr City and Diwaniyah, the US military said it was targeting "criminals" or rogue elements of Sadr's group who have failed to abide by the cleric's call for a freeze on all activities. That announcement came in August after clashes with rival Shiite factions in the shrine city of Karbala.

Mr. Abdel-Karim, a resident of Sadr City, said he saw 10 US Stryker combat vehicles arrive in his neighborhood at about 10:30 p.m. local time Saturday. He said they were quickly attacked by militiamen in the area prompting a fierce fight that lasted nearly 10 hours.

Several loud explosions could be heard across the capital at about 6:30 a.m.

He said several homes, neighborhood power generators, and at least 25 cars were badly damaged in the fighting.

"People are very angry at the silence of the Iraqi government over these unprovoked actions by the US military," said Mr. Okaili, the Sadrist parliamentarian.

On Sunday, hundreds of local residents, wailing and chanting "There is no God but Allah," carried wooden coffins through the streets.

US military spokesman Maj. Winfield Danielson said: "When we engage hostile threats, we make every effort to protect innocent civilians."

There was no immediate response from Iraq's government, but it has harshly criticized the US military in the past for operations that have resulted in the loss of civilian life.

The military gave no details about the kidnap victims, apart from the dates they were abducted – this May and last November.

Three US soldiers were kidnapped in an Al Qaeda stronghold south of Baghdad in May. The body of one was found later that month but the other two are classed as missing and captured. Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the abductions.

The same month, the five Britons were abducted in the Iraqi capital in an attack blamed on Mahdi Army militants.

A US Army translator of Iraqi descent was kidnapped in Baghdad on Oct. 23 last year when he went to visit relatives. His family said he was taken by the members of the Mahdi Army.

Sadr froze the activities of the Mahdi Army after 52 were killed in gun battles between rival Shiite militias in the city of Karbala.

On another front, Kurdish rebels ambushed a Turkish military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq early Sunday, killing 12 soldiers and increasing pressure on the Turkish government to stage attacks against guerrilla camps in Iraq.

Turkey's parliament earlier this week overwhelmingly passed a motion authorizing its military to launch an offensive into northern Iraq against hideouts of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Sunday's death toll raises the number of soldiers killed in PKK attacks in the past two weeks to around 30. On Sunday, Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, met with Massoud Barzani head of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, where most of the rebels are believed to be holed up.

Awadh al-Taie in Baghdad contributed reporting. Material from Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

BBC : US raid kills Iraqi 'criminals'

US raid kills Iraqi 'criminals'

October 21, 2007

Forty-nine Iraqi "criminals" have been killed in three separate raids in Sadr City in the capital, Baghdad, the US military says.

"The operation's objective was an individual reported to be a long-time Special Groups member specialising in kidnapping operations," it said.

Iraqi sources said women and children were among those killed, but the US said it was not aware of this.

Sadr City is a stronghold of radical Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr.

The poor district has been the scene of much fighting between militants and US forces.

'Barbaric'

US military said its troops had returned fire after coming under sustained attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began to raid a series of buildings in the district.

Ground forces then called in air strikes.

The statement by the US military said: "Coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation."

Clouds of black smoke rose from Sadr City, where heavy gunfire continued on Sunday morning with US helicopters circling overhead, Reuters news agency reported.

"We were waking in the morning and all of a sudden rockets landed in the house and the children were screaming," it quoted a woman as saying.

An official loyal to Moqtada Sadr said the attack was "simply barbaric".

"Most of those killed and wounded were women, children and elderly men which shows the indiscriminate monstrosity of the attacks on this crowded area," Abdul-Mehdi al-Muteyri told Reuters news agency.

But the US military denied civilians had been killed.

"Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," its statement said.

WaPo : US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

By STEVEN R. HURST | The Associated Press | October 21, 2007

BAGHDAD -- The U.S. military said its forces killed an estimated 49 militants during a dawn raid to capture an Iranian-linked militia chief in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave, one of the highest tolls for a single operation since President Bush declared an end to active combat in 2003.

Iraqi police and hospital officials, who often overstate casualties, reported only 15 deaths including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said all the dead were civilians.

Al-Dabbagh said on CNN that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had met with the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, to protest the action.

Associated Press photos showed the bodies of two toddlers, one with a gouged face, swaddled in blankets on a morgue floor. Their shirts were pulled up, exposing their abdomens, and a diaper showed above the waistband of one boy's shorts. Relatives said the children were killed when helicopter gunfire hit their house as they slept.

One local resident said some of the casualties were people sleeping on roofs to seek relief from the heat and lack of electricity. The Iraqi officials said 52 were wounded in the raid on the sprawling district.

The U.S. military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties, and the discrepancy in the death tolls and accounts of what happened could not be reconciled. American commanders reported no U.S. casualties.

The raid on the dangerous Shiite slum was aimed at capturing an alleged rogue militia chief, one of thousands of fighters who have broken with Muqtada al-Sadr's mainstream Mahdi Army. The military did not say if the man was captured. He was also not named.

The Shiite cleric has ordered gunmen loyal to him to put down their arms. But thousands of followers dissatisfied with being taken out of the fight have formed a loose confederation armed and trained by Iran.

The U.S. operation was the latest in a series that have produced significant death tolls, including civilians, as American forces increasingly take the fight to Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida militants and Shiite militiamen.

The intensity and frequency of American attacks and raids have grown since the arrival of the last of 30,000 additional soldiers on June 15.

The reinforcements were ordered into Iraq earlier this year by Bush and have inflicted a heavy toll on militants on both sides of Iraq's sectarian divide. American commanders credit the troop buildup for a sharp drop in the number of attacks and deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, particularly in the past two months.

As U.S. forces pounded Sadr City, the potential grew for a fresh explosion of fighting on a new front, Iraq's northern border with Turkey.

Early Sunday, Kurdish separatist rebels who take shelter in the rugged mountains on the Iraqi side of the frontier ambushed a military unit inside Turkey and killed at least 12 soldiers. Turkish forces responded by lobbing at least 15 artillery shells toward mainly abandoned Kurdish villages inside Iraq, according to Iraqi border guard Col. Hussein Rashid. He said there were no casualties.

In the Sadr City raid, the U.S. military said forces killed "an estimated 49 criminals" in three linked attacks during an intelligence-driven raid to capture the rogue Shiite kidnapper who was partially funded by Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire under attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began raiding structures in the district, according to a statement. It said 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in helicopter airstrikes, which killed six more militants.

As American soldiers left the zone, troops were hit by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire, killing 10 more combatants.

"All total, coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said.

A local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah said his neighbor's 14-year-old son, Saif Alwan, was killed while sleeping on the roof.

"Saif was killed by an airstrike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student," Abu Fatmah said.

An uncle of 2-year-old Ali Hamid said the boy was killed and his parents seriously wounded when helicopter gunfire pierced the wall and windows of their house as they slept indoors.

Relatives gathered at Sadr City's Imam Ali hospital where the emergency room was overwhelmed with bloodied casualties. The dead were placed in caskets covered by Iraqi flags.

APTN video showed three bloodied boys sitting on hospital tables and an elderly man being treated for a head wound. Mourners tied wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans with a plume of smoke in the background. Other footage showed a U.S. helicopter flying over the area while black smoke rose.

The sweeps into Sadr City have sent a strong message that U.S. forces plan no letup on suspected Shiite militia cells despite objections from the Shiite-led government of al-Maliki, who is working for closer cooperation with Shiite heavyweight Iran.

An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the government would ask the Americans for an explanation of Sunday's raid and stressed the need to avoid civilian deaths.

The government has issued mixed reactions to the raids and airstrikes, particularly those that have targeted Sunni extremists.

U.S. troops backed by attack aircraft killed 19 suspected insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, in an operation Oct. 11 targeting al-Qaida in Iraq leaders northwest of Baghdad.

Al-Maliki's government said those killings were a "sorrowful matter," but emphasized that civilian deaths are unavoidable in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

© 2007 The Associated Press

Canadian Press : U.S. forces kill 49 militants in Sadr City; Iraqis report civilians killed

U.S. forces kill 49 militants in Sadr City; Iraqis report civilians killed

October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said its forces killed an estimated 49 militants during a dawn raid to capture an Iranian-linked militia chief in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave, one of the highest tolls for a single operation since President Bush declared an end to active combat in 2003.

Iraqi police and hospital officials, who often overstate casualties, reported only 15 deaths including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said all the dead were civilians.

Al-Dabbagh said on CNN that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had met with the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, to protest the action.

Associated Press photos showed the bodies of two toddlers, one with a gouged face, swaddled in blankets on a morgue floor. Their shirts were pulled up, exposing their abdomens, and a diaper showed above the waistband of one boy's shorts. Relatives said the children were killed when helicopter gunfire hit their house as they slept.

One local resident said some of the casualties were people sleeping on roofs to seek relief from the heat and lack of electricity. The Iraqi officials said 52 were wounded in the raid on the sprawling district.

The U.S. military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties, and the discrepancy in the death tolls and accounts of what happened could not be reconciled. American commanders reported no U.S. casualties.

The raid on the dangerous Shiite slum was aimed at capturing an alleged rogue militia chief, one of thousands of fighters who have broken with Muqtada al-Sadr's mainstream Mahdi Army. The military did not say if the man was captured. He was also not named.

The Shiite cleric has ordered gunmen loyal to him to put down their arms. But thousands of followers dissatisfied with being taken out of the fight have formed a loose confederation armed and trained by Iran.

The U.S. operation was the latest in a series that have produced significant death tolls, including civilians, as American forces increasingly take the fight to Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida militants and Shiite militiamen.

The intensity and frequency of American attacks and raids have grown since the arrival of the last of 30,000 additional soldiers on June 15.

The reinforcements were ordered into Iraq earlier this year by Bush and have inflicted a heavy toll on militants on both sides of Iraq's sectarian divide. American commanders credit the troop buildup for a sharp drop in the number of attacks and deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, particularly in the past two months.

As U.S. forces pounded Sadr City, the potential grew for a fresh explosion of fighting on a new front, Iraq's northern border with Turkey.

Early Sunday, Kurdish separatist rebels who take shelter in the rugged mountains on the Iraqi side of the frontier ambushed a military unit inside Turkey and killed at least 12 soldiers. Turkish forces responded by lobbing at least 15 artillery shells toward mainly abandoned Kurdish villages inside Iraq, according to Iraqi border guard Col. Hussein Rashid. He said there were no casualties.

In the Sadr City raid, the U.S. military said forces killed "an estimated 49 criminals" in three linked attacks during an intelligence-driven raid to capture the rogue Shiite kidnapper who was partially funded by Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire under attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began raiding structures in the district, according to a statement. It said 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in helicopter airstrikes, which killed six more militants.

As American soldiers left the zone, troops were hit by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire, killing 10 more combatants.

"All total, coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said.

A local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah said his neighbor's 14-year-old son, Saif Alwan, was killed while sleeping on the roof.

"Saif was killed by an airstrike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student," Abu Fatmah said.

An uncle of 2-year-old Ali Hamid said the boy was killed and his parents seriously wounded when helicopter gunfire pierced the wall and windows of their house as they slept indoors.

Relatives gathered at Sadr City's Imam Ali hospital where the emergency room was overwhelmed with bloodied casualties. The dead were placed in caskets covered by Iraqi flags.

APTN video showed three bloodied boys sitting on hospital tables and an elderly man being treated for a head wound. Mourners tied wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans with a plume of smoke in the background. Other footage showed a U.S. helicopter flying over the area while black smoke rose.

The sweeps into Sadr City have sent a strong message that U.S. forces plan no letup on suspected Shiite militia cells despite objections from the Shiite-led government of al-Maliki, who is working for closer cooperation with Shiite heavyweight Iran.

An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the government would ask the Americans for an explanation of Sunday's raid and stressed the need to avoid civilian deaths.

The government has issued mixed reactions to the raids and airstrikes, particularly those that have targeted Sunni extremists.

U.S. troops backed by attack aircraft killed 19 suspected insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, in an operation Oct. 11 targeting al-Qaida in Iraq leaders northwest of Baghdad.

Al-Maliki's government said those killings were a "sorrowful matter," but emphasized that civilian deaths are unavoidable in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Xinhua : US troops kill up to 49 in Baghdad's Sadr City

US troops kill up to 49 in Baghdad's Sadr City

(Xinhua News Agency | October 22, 2007)

The US military said that its troops have killed up to 49 "criminals" in a raid on Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Sadr City early on Sunday.

"Collation forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation," the US military said in a statement.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry source told Xinhua earlier that 13 people, including one woman and two children, were killed, along with more than 52 people injured.

The US military said no evidence had been found civilian casualties occurred in the trade of fire.

Earlier, the military said that six suspected militants were killed during the raid that targeted a Special Groups member specializing in kidnapping operations.

The Special Groups are Shiite militia extremists funded, trained and armed by external sources, specifically by Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force operatives, according to the US military.

The interior ministry source said the militants were believed to be members of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to radical Shiitecleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Based on intelligence reports, the targeted individual "is a well-known cell leader and has previously sought funding from Iran to carry out high profile kidnappings," the US military said, without making clear weather the marked man had been arrested or killed.

A US military spokesman said in an earlier statement that the cell leader was believed to be behind kidnappings of coalition force soldiers, including one in May this year.

A US patrol was ambushed on May 12 in south of Baghdad. Four soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed, and three soldiers were missing. The body of one was found later that month but the other two remain unknown.

During the house to house searches in the area on Sunday, the troops encountered attacks from militiamen armed with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades from nearby structures, according to the statement.

The US troops fired back and called in aerial support, killing 39 militants, it said.

While leaving the targeted area, the troops clashed again with another group of militants after they were attacked by a roadside bomb followed with gunfire, killing 10 more other militants, it added.

Sadr City is a stronghold of Mahdi Army. Sadr offered a six-month freeze of armed activities for his militia at the end of August.

eFluxMedia : Latest US Raid in Baghdad: 13 Dead, 52 Wounded, Women and Children

Latest US Raid in Baghdad: 13 Dead, 52 Wounded, Women and Children

by Diane Smith | October 21, 2007

The latest US military operation was carried out on Sunday in the Shiite district of Sadr City (eastern Baghdad) and it ended with the killing of at least 13 people and the injuring of 52 other.

The American soldiers were backed by the air force. According to a media source in the Office of the Martyr al-Sadr, an organization loyal to the radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr, the US forces surrounded several areas in that sector and the air raids followed by ground forces raids led to the killing of civilians - among them women and children - police source told the independent Iraqi news agency Voices of Iraq.

The US military account of events, on the other hand, sounded a bit different.

"In an intelligence-driven operation this morning in Sadr City, Coalition forces were engaged in a firefight that resulted in the killing of an estimated six criminals," the statement said.

The goal of the military maneuver was to capture or kill an Iran-funded special group leader previously involved in acts of kidnapping. The statement added that the air support was called after the ground forces were attacked. The initial reports of the US army showed no civilian or troop casualties.

"We continue to support the Government of Iraq in welcoming the commitment by Moqtada al-Sadr to stop attack and we will continue to show restraint in dealing with those who honor his pledge," said Major Winfield Danielson, the spokesman for the Multinational Force- Iraq.

Sadr City shelters the Mehdi Army militia, whose affiliates follow the radical Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr. It’s a poor district that has witnessed numerous clashes between the militants and the US military.

© 2007 - eFluxMedia

AFP : US forces kill 49 in Baghdad Shiite stronghold

US forces kill 49 in Baghdad Shiite stronghold

October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US forces killed 49 "criminals" in fierce fighting with militants in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Sunday during a raid targeting an Iranian-linked insurgent, the military said.

Medics at four hospitals confirmed 17 dead, including a boy and a girl, but US military spokesman Major Winfield Danielson told AFP there were no civilian casualties and no reports of American losses.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a probe into the incident which the Iraqi authorities said had caused civilian casualties.

Pictures taken by an AFP photographer showed grieving relatives carrying off the bodies of dead for burial and dozens of wounded being treated by emergency hospital staff.

One resident stood crying over the coffin of a young boy, while other residents pointed to blood-stained mattresses they said were the result of an air strike from an American helicopter.

The US military said troops were drawn into fighting after they launched a raid to seize their high-value target in Sadr City, a poor part of the capital dominated by militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"The operation's objective was an individual reported to be a long-time Special Groups member specialising in kidnapping operations," a statement said.

"Special Groups" is a US term for what it says are secret Shiite cells which wage acts of "terrorism" in Iraq with the financial and military backing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards units.

"Intelligence indicates he is a well-known cell leader and has previously sought funding from Iran to carry out high profile kidnappings," the statement said.

Danielson said the targeted individual had not been killed or captured during the clashes, which the military said erupted when troops were attacked by gunfire and rocket propelled grenades.

"Responding in self-defence, coalition forces engaged, killing an estimated 33 criminals," the statement said, adding that air support was then called in and killed another six. Ten more were killed as US forces withdrew, it said.

"I can say that we don't have any evidence of any civilians killed or wounded. Coalition forces only engage hostile threats and make every effort to protect innocent civilians," said Danielson.

Iraq's national security committee, headed by Maliki, said the firefight had killed "innocent civilians."

"The prime minister spoke out against the use of excessive force in chasing wanted (suspects) as it could cause damage to innocent civilians and their property," Maliki's office said. "The prime minister also said the incident would be investigated."

The US military has regularly targeted Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which dominates in Sadr City and is accused by the Americans of widescale criminal activity and sectarian killings of Sunnis.

Sadr, whose movement is the most powerful popular force in Iraq, declared a six-month freeze on militia activities in August, including a halt to attacks on US-led troops.

But his political bloc pulled out of the Shiite alliance that leads Iraq's coalition government in September following a boycott by his six ministers in April, further upsetting Iraq's already fractured political landscape.

"What happened today in Sadr City is part of a series of conspiracies led by the US against the Sadrists. Sadrists who are always demanding the exit of the occupier," said Sadr MP Saleh al-Igaili.

"The Sadrists condemn the barbaric action and hold the Iraqi government and the occupier responsible for the attack.

"The occupier's declaration that it killed 49 criminals is a lie. The occupier's forces actually killed only 10 and wounded 62, but most of them were children and women," he said.

US forces have welcomed the Sadr freeze but continue to target fighters who it says have broken away from the main Mahdi Army and formed special groups allegedly aided by Iran.

The US military also said troops detained on Sunday two Mahdi Army militants in Baghdad's Habibiyah neighbourhood who are accused of "conducting criminal activity" despite Sadr's freeze. A third was killed.

One of the detainees allegedly runs "three extremist groups and killed 20 civilians in an attack last month and in another attack raped five young girls", the military added.

NYT : Confusion on Deaths After Fighting in Sadr City

Confusion on Deaths After Fighting in Sadr City

By ALISSA J. RUBIN | October 22, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 21 — American forces on Sunday came under heavy fire in three locations in Sadr City, the Shiite enclave in Baghdad, and returned fire, killing 49 militants, according to an American military official and a military statement about the episode.

Iraqi witnesses said that 17 people had been killed, one of whom was an elderly woman who died of her wounds, and that of 40 people who had been wounded, a number were children. At least four of the wounded children were at Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City, where family members helped the overtaxed hospital staff and anxiously hovered over the children.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said in a statement that the American military should avoid using excessive force that ran the risk of harming civilians and that the government would investigate the episode. However, he did not condemn the attack outright. The Iraqi government has given tacit approval for a number of similar American raids on both Sunni Arab and Shiite militants.

In the operation, American soldiers were searching for an Iraqi who is believed to be in charge of a kidnapping ring. “Our objective was to go in and locate one high-value target responsible for an extensive Iranian-backed kidnapping ring,” said the military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the military is still gathering data about the attack.

The operation failed to capture the man, but as it was under way, American soldiers came under heavy fire from gunmen using automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, the statement said. The soldiers called for air support and the military said that at least 33 people were killed by ground fire in the initial engagement and 6 others by air attacks. As the American forces tried to leave the area, heavy fire continued and the attackers detonated a roadside bomb. Ten other Iraqi fighters were killed as the Americans tried to withdraw, the military statement said.

Although the area has been controlled by the militia of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, militia members have been quiet since late August when Mr. Sadr asked them to lay down their arms. The suspension of militia operations has allowed the American military to focus its attacks on people who have continued to fight despite Mr. Sadr’s call for a truce. The military contends that at least some of those still fighting have links to Iran.

For Sadr City residents in the areas where the fighting was under way, at least some of whom appeared to have nothing to do with Mr. Sadr’s militia, the gunfire was terrifying. Two cousins, Murtada Saiedi, 8, and Ali Saiedi, 11, were walking home at 6:15 a.m. after buying fresh samoun for their families. Samoun is a triangular bread beloved by Iraqis for breakfast.

“I was holding the samoun in my arms in a big bag,” said Ali Saiedi, adding that he was taking the bread home for his eight siblings and his parents. “Then I heard a big sound and I tried to run, I wanted to reach my home, but I couldn’t.

“And then when I woke up, I was here,” he said, as he lay in a bed at the Imam Ali Hospital with bandages on his arms from shrapnel cuts.

His cousin, Murtada Saiedi, in the next bed, would not speak. He winced as he shifted his weight in the bed and looked up silently at his father and uncle, who were leaning over the child. The doctor had just come by to say that he thought Murtada might have some internal bleeding.

An official at the hospital, Abu Ibrahim, said an elderly woman whose midsection had been nearly severed by shrapnel died Sunday evening, bringing the total dead at the hospital to 16. There were 38 wounded who were admitted to the hospital, he said. Officials at a second hospital in the neighborhood reported one dead and two wounded.

The military said it did not believe there were any civilian deaths as a result of the fighting. “Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation,” the military statement said.

The episode highlights the difficulty of determining the facts after military operations, especially ones involving firefights in which much happens quickly. The military said the reason so few bodies were taken to hospitals was that the militants picked up the bodies of their own people to prevent American soldiers from gaining intelligence about them.

In cases where Iraqi casualty numbers are far higher than American numbers, the American military sometimes says the discrepancy is a result of exaggeration by Iraqis. In any individual occurrence it is hard to tell which factors play the most important role.

Outside of Baghdad on Sunday, preparations were under way in Anbar Province for a parade in honor of the tribal councils that have been fighting Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown extremist organization that American intelligence sources say has some foreign leadership.

The celebration on Monday will be just two days after a tribal delegation from Karbala Province, which is primarily Shiite, came to meet with the Anbar sheiks to discuss border issues of concern to both of them. The sheiks agreed that they needed to work together to secure the border between the provinces. The Karbala sheiks are worried that without a tough and organized security plan, Sunni Arab militants might migrate to Karbala.

Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Mudhafer al-Husaini contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Karbala and Anbar.

ABC : US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

US: Raid of Baghdad's Sadr City Kills 49

US Says Forces Kill 49 Militants in Sadr City; Iraqis Say 3 Children Died

By STEVEN R. HURST | AP Writer | BAGHDAD | October 22, 2007

The U.S. military said its forces killed an estimated 49 militants during a dawn raid to capture an Iranian-linked militia chief in Baghdad's Sadr City enclave, one of the highest tolls for a single operation since President Bush declared an end to active combat in 2003.

Iraqi police and hospital officials, who often overstate casualties, reported only 15 deaths including three children. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said all the dead were civilians.

Al-Dabbagh said on CNN that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had met with the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, to protest the action.

Associated Press photos showed the bodies of two toddlers, one with a gouged face, swaddled in blankets on a morgue floor. Their shirts were pulled up, exposing their abdomens, and a diaper showed above the waistband of one boy's shorts. Relatives said the children were killed when helicopter gunfire hit their house as they slept.

One local resident said some of the casualties were people sleeping on roofs to seek relief from the heat and lack of electricity. The Iraqi officials said 52 were wounded in the raid on the sprawling district.

The U.S. military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties, and the discrepancy in the death tolls and accounts of what happened could not be reconciled. American commanders reported no U.S. casualties.

The raid on the dangerous Shiite slum was aimed at capturing an alleged rogue militia chief, one of thousands of fighters who have broken with Muqtada al-Sadr's mainstream Mahdi Army. The military did not say if the man was captured. He was also not named.

The Shiite cleric has ordered gunmen loyal to him to put down their arms. But thousands of followers dissatisfied with being taken out of the fight have formed a loose confederation armed and trained by Iran.

The U.S. operation was the latest in a series that have produced significant death tolls, including civilians, as American forces increasingly take the fight to Sunni insurgents, al-Qaida militants and Shiite militiamen.

The intensity and frequency of American attacks and raids have grown since the arrival of the last of 30,000 additional soldiers on June 15.

The reinforcements were ordered into Iraq earlier this year by Bush and have inflicted a heavy toll on militants on both sides of Iraq's sectarian divide. American commanders credit the troop buildup for a sharp drop in the number of attacks and deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians, particularly in the past two months.

As U.S. forces pounded Sadr City, the potential grew for a fresh explosion of fighting on a new front, Iraq's northern border with Turkey.

Early Sunday, Kurdish separatist rebels who take shelter in the rugged mountains on the Iraqi side of the frontier ambushed a military unit inside Turkey and killed at least 12 soldiers. Turkish forces responded by lobbing at least 15 artillery shells toward mainly abandoned Kurdish villages inside Iraq, according to Iraqi border guard Col. Hussein Rashid. He said there were no casualties.

In the Sadr City raid, the U.S. military said forces killed "an estimated 49 criminals" in three linked attacks during an intelligence-driven raid to capture the rogue Shiite kidnapper who was partially funded by Iran.

U.S. troops returned fire under attack from automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades from nearby buildings as they began raiding structures in the district, according to a statement. It said 33 militants were killed in the firefight. Ground forces then called in helicopter airstrikes, which killed six more militants.

As American soldiers left the zone, troops were hit by a roadside bomb and continued heavy fire, killing 10 more combatants.

"All total, coalition forces estimate that 49 criminals were killed in three separate engagements during this operation. Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said.

A local resident who goes by the name Abu Fatmah said his neighbor's 14-year-old son, Saif Alwan, was killed while sleeping on the roof.

"Saif was killed by an airstrike and what is his guilt? Is he from the Mahdi Army? He is a poor student," Abu Fatmah said.

An uncle of 2-year-old Ali Hamid said the boy was killed and his parents seriously wounded when helicopter gunfire pierced the wall and windows of their house as they slept indoors.

Relatives gathered at Sadr City's Imam Ali hospital where the emergency room was overwhelmed with bloodied casualties. The dead were placed in caskets covered by Iraqi flags.

APTN video showed three bloodied boys sitting on hospital tables and an elderly man being treated for a head wound. Mourners tied wooden coffins onto the tops of minivans with a plume of smoke in the background. Other footage showed a U.S. helicopter flying over the area while black smoke rose.

The sweeps into Sadr City have sent a strong message that U.S. forces plan no letup on suspected Shiite militia cells despite objections from the Shiite-led government of al-Maliki, who is working for closer cooperation with Shiite heavyweight Iran.

An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, said the government would ask the Americans for an explanation of Sunday's raid and stressed the need to avoid civilian deaths.

The government has issued mixed reactions to the raids and airstrikes, particularly those that have targeted Sunni extremists.

U.S. troops backed by attack aircraft killed 19 suspected insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, in an operation Oct. 11 targeting al-Qaida in Iraq leaders northwest of Baghdad.

Al-Maliki's government said those killings were a "sorrowful matter," but emphasized that civilian deaths are unavoidable in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Reuters : U.S. military says kills 49 in Baghdad raid

U.S. military says kills 49 in Baghdad raid

By Sattar Raheem and Aseel Kami | October 21, 2007

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government protested against a raid by U.S. forces in Baghdad on Sunday in which the military said 49 gunmen were killed in fierce fighting, but police and witnesses said claimed the lives of many civilians.

The fighting erupted during an operation in Sadr City, the main stronghold of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada, to capture an Iranian-linked militant suspected of abducting U.S.-led coalition soldiers and other foreigners.

Iraqi police said 13 civilians were killed and 69 wounded in the clashes, in which the U.S. military said troops backed by attack helicopters battled militants armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machineguns.

Two of the victims were toddlers, Reuters Television pictures showed.

The U.S. military said it had no confirmation of any civilian casualties.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki protested about the "excessive force" against civilians in the Sadr City raid in his weekly meeting with General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander Iraq, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in an interview with CNN's Late Edition.

Iraqi officials have criticized the U.S. military in the past for operations that have resulted in the loss of civilian life, especially the use of air strikes in built-up areas.

Petraeus's spokesman, Colonel Steve Boylan, said it had been agreed to establish a committee that would consist of Iraqi cabinet officials and U.S. general officers to "review the case and to refine mechanisms for the future".

BLACK SMOKE

Clouds of black smoke rose from Sadr City, a sprawling slum of some 2 million people in northern Baghdad, as sirens wailed, heavy gunfire echoed and U.S. attack helicopters circled above.

A U.S. military official said the target of the raid was suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of "coalition force members and other foreigners" in May this year and last November. The official did not say whether he had been captured.

A U.S. army translator was kidnapped last October, and in May three U.S. soldiers and five Britons -- four security contractors and a civilian -- were abducted in two incidents.

"The operation's objective was an individual reported to be a long-time Special Groups member specializing in kidnapping operations. Intelligence indicates he ... has previously sought funding from Iran," the U.S. military said in a statement.

Special Groups is U.S. military jargon for rogue Mehdi Army units they say receive funding, training and weapons from neighboring Iran.

The U.S. military said its soldiers came under heavy machinegun and rocket-propelled-grenade fire from neighboring buildings at the start of the raid. Troops returned fire, killing 33. Six more gunmen were killed in air strikes.

As the raiding party began withdrawing from the area, they continued to come under fire and were struck by a roadside bomb. The military said soldiers shot back, killing 10 gunmen.

"Ground forces reported they were unaware of any innocent civilians being killed as a result of this operation," the military said.

BLOOD-STAINED MATTRESSES

Local hospitals said they had received 12 bodies and 65 wounded, including eight women and children.

The bodies of the two slain toddlers, one in a diaper, lay on blankets in the morgue of Imam Ali hospital in Sadr City, where doctors tended to wounded men, some elderly, and boys, Reuters Television footage showed.

In a house where one of the children lived, a man pointed to bloodstained mattresses and blood-splattered pillows, choking back tears as he held up a photo of one of the dead.

Hundreds of local residents, wailing and chanting "There is no God but Allah", carried wooden coffins through the streets.

The military gave few details about the high-profile abductions linked to the kidnap cell leader but said they took place this May and last November.

Three U.S. soldiers were kidnapped in an al Qaeda stronghold south of Baghdad in May. The body of one was found later that month but the other two are classed as missing and captured. Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the abductions.

The same month, five Britons were abducted from a Finance Ministry building in the Iraqi capital by gunmen wearing police uniforms in an attack blamed on Mehdi Army militants.

A U.S. army translator of Iraqi descent, was kidnapped in Baghdad on October 23 last year when he went to visit relatives. His family said he was taken by the members of the Mehdi Army.

Moqtada al-Sadr froze the activities of the Mehdi Army at the end of August for six months after 52 were killed in gun battles between rival Shi'ite militias in the city of Kerbala.

(Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla, Wisam Mohammed and Ross Colvin)

© Reuters2007All rights reserved