Clashes Erupt In Fallujah
Fighting broke out Monday in a northern district of Fallujah, with the sound of mortar fire and heavy machine guns, a day after U.S. officials announced a fragile cease-fire in the besieged city was being extended.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The battle began when U.S. forces ventured into the northern districts of the city, according to CBS News Reporter Lisa Barron. Iraqis fired rocket-propelled grenades and Marines returned fire with heavy machineguns mounted on vehicles. An hour into the fighting, U.S. helicopters attacked.
U.S. officials announced Sunday that the two-week-old cease-fire in the city — which has repeatedly been broken by gun battles — would be extended for another two days. Marines planned to begin joint patrols with Iraqi security forces through the city later this week, a step aimed at reasserting control without a full-scale assault.
Elsewhere, an explosion leveled a building in northern Baghdad on Monday, setting four U.S. Humvees nearby on fire. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others wounded. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
The U.S. military reportedly thought the building was being used to store chemicals. Residents later said they found identity cards belonging to members of the Iraq Survey Group hunting for weapons of mass destruction.
Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers rolled into a base in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Monday to replace withdrawing Spanish troops and put pressure on a radical anti-American Shiite militia that controls parts of the city. The move deploys U.S. troops within the Najaf urban area for the first time since a large force massed outside the city earlier this month to put down the Al-Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
In other developments:
Marine commanders warned last week that insurgents in Fallujah had just days to turn in heavy weapons.
But U.S. officials on Sunday dramatically toned down the repeated warnings they have made this week that they could launch an all-out offensive on Fallujah unless guerrillas disarm within days.
They also spoke of progress, even while admitting insurgents were not abiding by deals reached a week ago.
An Associated Press correspondent on the scene says Marine commanders were somewhat skeptical that the plan for joint patrols would work.
Some Iraqis feared the very presence of the Marines in Fallujah may ignite new violence. The United Nations envoy who is helping draft an Iraqi interim government urged the Bush administration Sunday to "tread carefully" in besieged Fallujah and avoid alienating an already angry populace.
In Najaf, about 200 troops and Military Police rolled into the base Monday morning, in part to prevent the site from falling into the militia's hands after Spanish troops withdraw. Col. Paul White said the Spanish would be leaving in the next few days.
Overnight, al-Sadr's forces shelled the base with 21 mortars, wounding at least one Salvadoran soldier, said Col. Paul White, commander of the U.S. 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, which moved into the base.
"We are going in to allow the Spanish troops to leave safely and so that the compound is not left empty," said White, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, which moved into the city. "We don't want al-Sadr's militia to take it over. It is not an offensive operation."
The limited move into the base also gives U.S. forces a foothold in Najaf from which to pressure al-Sadr, who is holed up in the center of the city near the shrines, where his militiamen largely control the streets.
Shiite leaders have warned of a possible explosion of anger if U.S. forces enter the holy sites. Najaf is home to the Imam Ali Shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.
U.S. officials said they would start "economic, military and psychological" operations to pressure al-Sadr.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said Sunday that weapons were being stockpiled in mosques, shrines and schools in Najaf and demanded an end to the practice.
Al-Sadr's militia launched a bloody uprising on April 4, and took control of police stations and government buildings in several cities in largely Shiite southern Iraq.
Al-Sadr's gunmen left the stations and buildings a week after the uprising, but his militiamen can still be seen in the streets of Najaf and the nearby city of Kufa, carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
U.S. forces have been surrounding Najaf since shortly after the uprising but commanders have been reticent to launch an attack in which they could end up fighting militiamen hiding out in shrines and mosques that are considered sacred by Shiites.
Published reports in Italy say al-Sadr is renewing threats to unleash suicide bombers against U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Two newspapers quote al-Sadr as saying Iraqis are willing to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of their country. In the phone interviews, al-Sadr warns of widespread bloodshed if he is harmed personally.