4 GIs Die Amid Widespread Fighting
Separate explosions killed four American soldiers as U.S. troops and Iraqi soldiers stepped up pressure on Sunni insurgents before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan this week.
Last year, insurgents sharply increased their attacks against U.S. and coalition forces at the start of the holy month.
One soldier was killed in an explosion about 4:50 a.m. Wednesday in western Baghdad, the U.S. command said. The three others died in a roadside attack at about 10 p.m. Tuesday in eastern Baghdad, a separate military statement said. At least 1,069 troops have died in Iraq.
It wasn't immediately clear if the soldiers were part of Tuesday's offensive, which stretched from Baghdad to the Syrian border.
Clashes broke out in a string of militant strongholds from Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, northward along the Euphrates Valley to the Syrian border town of Qaim — all major conflict areas. Some of the sharpest exchanges took place in Hit, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad.
In other developments:
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are concerns within the U.S. government about a possible rise in insurgent violence around Ramadan, because of an upswing last year — when bombings and rocket attacks accelerated significantly in Baghdad and other areas at the beginning of the holy month.
Insurgents attacked an Iraqi National Guard outpost east of Qaim Tuesday, the U.S. military said. The local hospital reported 15 to 20 people were killed.
Seventy miles west of Baghdad, Iraqi troops backed by U.S. soldiers and Marines raided seven mosques in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, arresting a locally prominent member of a clerical association and three other people. They also seized bomb-making materials and "insurgent propaganda" in the mosques, U.S. officials said.
In Baghdad, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni clerical group suspected of links to the insurgency, condemned the mosque raids as an example of alleged American hostility toward Islam.
"I think there is a religious ideology that drives the American troops," said the association's official spokesman, Mohammed Bashar al-Faydhi. "President Bush has said at the beginning of the war that this is a 'crusade,'" he said, referring to the Christian attacks on Muslims in the Middle Ages.
However, the raids followed a surge in insurgent attacks in Ramadi, and the U.S. command accused the militants of violating the sanctity of the mosques by using them for military purposes. Marine spokesman Maj. Francis Piccoli said U.S. troops provided backup for the Iraqi soldiers but did not enter the mosques.
In Fallujah, the focal point for Sunni resistance, residents reported explosions and clashes on the eastern edge of the city Tuesday afternoon. At least five people were killed and four wounded in the blasts, according to Fallujah General Hospital. The victims were reportedly traveling in a truck and two cars on a highway outside the city when they came under fire.
Iraqi officials were in talks with city representatives to restore government control, which disintegrated after the Marines ended a three-week siege in late April. Since then the city has fallen under the control of hardline Islamist clerics and their armed followers, who defended Fallujah against the Marines.
Elsewhere, more than 1,000 U.S. troops, Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guardsmen launched two simultaneous raids Wednesday in Baqouba, north of Baghdad. No fighting was reported in either operation.
Iraqi soldiers patrolling Tal Afar on Tuesday detained 18 suspected militants, while a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation in Mosul netted five suspected rebels wanted for mortar attacks on military bases and "intimidating local civilians," the military said in a statement.
Southeast of Samarra — 60 miles north of Baghdad — U.S. soldiers arrested two suspected insurgents on Monday, the statement said.
At the 55-nation donors' conference that opened Wednesday in Tokyo, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage acknowledged the slow pace of reconstruction spending and said the recent use of more U.S. funds for security has created a "void," particularly in the electrical and water sectors in Iraq.
On a pledge of $18.4 billion, the United States has disbursed about $3 billion for reconstruction so far, including about one-third in the past 12 weeks, and Armitage said he expects Washington to soon dispense about $400 million a month.
"It took longer than necessary to get our act together prior to turning over sovereignty," he said.
But he added: "It's not a complete void. We have other money going in."
Iraqi interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh pleaded for donors to make good on their pledges.
"Development and stability in Iraq cannot be driven through the barrels of guns," Saleh said in an impassioned speech to open the two-day conference. "Assistance and aid in the short term is the key to destroying the causes of terrorism. It is also the only way we can build a sustainable, long-term future for our people."