BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 28, 2007
Battle Rages Outside Shiite Holy City
Najaf Battle Claims 2 U.S. Troops, Hundreds Of Insurgents
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Play CBS Video Video 2 U.S. Soldiers Die in Najaf CBS News RAW: In response to alleged plans to assassinate Shiite clerics, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers battled insurgents in the holy city of Najaf. Two U.S. soldiers died in a helicopter crash.
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Video U.S. Confirms GIs' Abduction U.S. officials confirmed that 4 soldiers were abducted and killed in a sneak attack in Iraq last week. Three of them were found shot to death, the other died en route to a hospital. Bob Orr reports.
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Video Stuck In The Middle Of A Feud As the U.S. struggles to contain the insurgency in Iraq, American soldiers also have to deal with the increasingly bloody struggle between Shiites and Sunnis. Lara Logan has more details.
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Iraqi soldiers take up positions at Zarqa, 12 miles northeast of Najaf, Iraq, Sunday Jan. 28, 2007. (AP Photo/Alaa Al-Marjani)
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Smoke rises from a U.S. helicopter that went down Sunday, January 28, 2007, during combat operations near Najaf, Iraq. The area has been the scene of fighting between militias and Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. helicopters. (ZEIN/AFP/Getty)
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An Iraqi policeman uses a metal detector on the body of a victim of violence during a funeral earlier this month in the holy city of Najaf. (Getty Images/Qassem Zein)
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Authorities said Iraqi soldiers supported by U.S. aircraft fought all day with a large group of insurgents in the Zaraq area, about 12 miles northeast of the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
Col. Ali Nomas, spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Najaf, said more than 250 corpses had been found. Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Othman al-Ghanemi also spoke of 250 dead but said an exact number would not be released until Monday. He said 10 gunmen had been captured, including one Sudanese.
Provincial Gov. Assad Sultan Abu Kilel said the assault was launched because the insurgents planned to attack Shiite pilgrims and clerics during ceremonies marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shiite calendar commemorating the 7th century death of Imam Hussein. The celebration culminates Tuesday in huge public processions in Karbala and other Shiite cities.
Officials were unclear about the religious affiliation of the militants. Although Sunni Arabs have been the main force behind insurgent groups, there are a number of Shiite militant and splinter groups that have clashed from time to time with the government.
Iraqi soldiers attacked at dawn and militants hiding in orchards fought back with automatic weapons, sniper rifles and rockets, the governor said. He said the insurgents were members of a previously unknown group called the Army of Heaven.
"They are well-equipped and they even have anti-aircraft missiles," the governor said. "They are backed by some locals" loyal to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Abu Kilel said two Iraqi policemen were killed and 15 wounded, but there was no word on other Iraqi government casualties.
A U.S. statement said the American helicopter went down while "conducting operations to assist Iraqi Security Forces" in the attack. It said two crew members died and their bodies were recovered. The statement did not give any information on why the aircraft crashed.
It was the second U.S. military helicopter to do down in eight days. Twelve U.S. soldiers died Jan. 20 when a Black Hawk crashed northeast of Baghdad. The Army says it is investigating the cause, but a Pentagon official has said debris indicated it was downed by a missile.
In other developments:
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- Media
Quit covering these animals in the Middle East and let them butcher themselves off camera. We have spent 50 years of time blood and money trying to civilize them to western standards and it does not work. Do they own your Job or what? Quit Covering them!
America GET out of Iraq and the Middle East quit selling them weapons, learn how to make Bio-Fuel or Clean-Coal Fuel and let the Middle East drink the oil and eat the sand! They cut the Oil off in the middle Seventies and we still have not gotten independent from Middle East Oil! Media quit covering these people in the Middle East let them blow each other up without our kids seeing it on the news! Who in the American Media is forcing our media to cover this violence in the Middle East? America has paid for the entire Middle East for the last Fifty Years in Lives, Blood and Tax Money and this investment has brought us the Chaos we have today. It is time to try something else! The Middle East has been fighting since the Sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac were born. Americans come home and let the Middle East be Isolated! The entire Middle East is not worth one more American Life or Dollar! - Reply to this comment
- The Genius of Impeachment:
The Founder's Cure for Royalism
by John Nichols
ISBN-10: 1595581405
ISBN-13: 978-1595581402 - Reply to this comment
- swwils
I, like many, feel the same way to do. But there is no end in sight with a government intent on "global war against terrorism". Where does it stop? Who is the next enemy? Iran? Syria?
The Congress of the United States better impliment the will of the people - real soon. - Reply to this comment
- I am so sick at the first thing I read every morning is about Americans Dying in Iraq.I will be so glad when my Brother's and Sister's can come home,Veterans have a comradeship that non service people just don't understand.Hopefully all this will be done with soon,and they can start coming home.
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- "Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them."
James Madison, speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 20, 1788
"As I watch my countrymen, brave and loyal souls all, follow the ageless path unto sure enslavement, the cruelty of an ironic history so oft repeated elicits primal calls of freedom, and deathly cries of pain. I am an open wound."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com - Reply to this comment
This so-called "battle" smells of Gen Westmoreland's tactics in Vietnam ... surround a village and pour in 100,000 rounds at anything that moves ... and .... get him the "BODY COUNT" ASAP.
I called Vietnam the "BODY COUNT WAR" ... Iraq is starting to look like the same thing. I would NOT TRUST any of those so-called "insurgents killed" statements.- Reply to this comment
- "Her face of horror could not be seen so I blanked it out. No innocence. No ignorance. Just summary guilt. And death."
SearingTruth
"The blood. All of that blood. Dried and brittle and bound to her skin. To act as if I did not notice, as if I did not care. To search, to salvage, to endure, to live. To return. Broken."
SearingTruth
"It was my flesh to defend my flesh. Not the fever of ambition, conquest, and greed."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - www.searingtruth.com - Reply to this comment
- Looks like idiot boy Bush has got some explaning to do on captured Iranians.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29iranians.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=d4deb1d521cb8706&hp=&ex=1170046800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin - Reply to this comment
- Check out that brand new chevy our tax dollars bought those iraqis... I'm so proud my money is being put to good use.
- Reply to this comment
- It seems we are fighting those who oppose the sheit religious zelots in IRAQ. In other words were helping bring the Iranian supporters to power in IRAQ. Wait, I mean were continuing to further help bring the Theocratic, american-hating government about in IRAQ. It is, of course, already established with our assistance.
If the IRAQUI people really want democracy, then why aren't the masses of common people helping us instead of hiding and supporting the terrorists and militias. Maybe we should pull back to the borders to stop the infiltration of more terrorists and Iranians, and let thr locals work out thier own disagreements. We could leave special forces to to root out bombers and hostile militia leaders. - Reply to this comment
- All politicians wear makeup but some wear mask!!!
- Reply to this comment
- I heard Bush is practicing for the GOP Men's Pairs Figure Skating.
- Reply to this comment
- good night, j .
- Reply to this comment
- I'll check back later bro,, a good night for the tube.
- Reply to this comment
- We can only HOPE...
- Reply to this comment
- Thin ice ?? I think Bush is treading water with an anchor attached.
- Reply to this comment
- Name wasn't BUSH, was it? He's skatin' on thin ice too...
- Reply to this comment
- We had some idiot ice skating in the middle of Donner Lake, they found him today. He won't be doing that again for sure.
- Reply to this comment
- Mid 30's here; BRRRRRRR! kinda nipplish!
- Reply to this comment
- Not bad, in the upper 60's & threating rain
- Reply to this comment
Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.
