US toll mounts as troops battle Sunnis and Shi’ites

BAGHDAD – The US lost at least 12 marines in the worst single toll in Iraq this year as occupation forces yesterday battled Shi’ite and Sunni opponents and US President George W. Bush vowed to crush those he called “thugs and killers”.

Another 54 Iraqis were reported killed in the past 24 hours in fighting which, since Sunday, has resulted in well over Iraqi 100 dead. Most of the clashes have been between US-led troops and militiamen of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Sadr, but at least 30 Sunni Iraqis have been killed in a separate US operation in Fallujah.In a briefing in Baghdad yesterday, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt vowed to destroy Sadr’s Mehdi Army which has been banned by the occupation authorities.”We will attack to destroy the Mehdi Army,” Kimmitt said, echoing the unmoving stance of Bush.”We will not be shaken by the thugs and terrorists,” Bush said in a speech earlier.”These killers don’t have values… We face tough action in Iraq but we will stay the course.”As the Arab League urged the United Nations to intervene immediately to stop the fighting, Bush prepared to hold a teleconference with members of his National Security Council as well as the head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid, and the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.Bush then plans to talk by telephone Wednesday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his main ally in Iraq.The 12 US marines were killed and two dozen wounded on Tuesday when between 60 and 70 Iraqi insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked them in a government palace in Ramadi, 80 kilometres west of Baghdad.The deaths were the most numerous in a single incident involving coalition troops this year since a US helicopter was downed near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, also in Al-Anbar, on January 8, killing all nine aboard.Ramadi is in the strife-wracked Sunni Triangle, not too far from Fallujah, where US forces were staging a separate operation to find those responsible for the killing of four US security contractors last week.Thirty Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded during overnight clashes between insurgents and US marines in Fallujah as part of “Operation Vigilant Resolve,” hospital sources and residents said yesterday.The operation involves two marine battalions based near this Sunni bastion of anti-US insurgency since the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime a year ago.More than 100 Iraqis have also been killed and hundreds wounded in the past three days as coalition troops tackle furious assaults by rebels loyal to Sadr.Around 30 coalition troops, including the marines, have now been killed in the same time, military sources said, including a Salvadorian and a Ukrainian.- Nampa-AFPMost of the clashes have been between US-led troops and militiamen of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Sadr, but at least 30 Sunni Iraqis have been killed in a separate US operation in Fallujah.In a briefing in Baghdad yesterday, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt vowed to destroy Sadr’s Mehdi Army which has been banned by the occupation authorities.”We will attack to destroy the Mehdi Army,” Kimmitt said, echoing the unmoving stance of Bush.”We will not be shaken by the thugs and terrorists,” Bush said in a speech earlier.”These killers don’t have values… We face tough action in Iraq but we will stay the course.”As the Arab League urged the United Nations to intervene immediately to stop the fighting, Bush prepared to hold a teleconference with members of his National Security Council as well as the head of US Central Command, General John Abizaid, and the US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.Bush then plans to talk by telephone Wednesday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his main ally in Iraq.The 12 US marines were killed and two dozen wounded on Tuesday when between 60 and 70 Iraqi insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked them in a government palace in Ramadi, 80 kilometres west of Baghdad.The deaths were the most numerous in a single incident involving coalition troops this year since a US helicopter was downed near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, also in Al-Anbar, on January 8, killing all nine aboard.Ramadi is in the strife-wracked Sunni Triangle, not too far from Fallujah, where US forces were staging a separate operation to find those responsible for the killing of four US security contractors last week.Thirty Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded during overnight clashes between insurgents and US marines in Fallujah as part of “Operation Vigilant Resolve,” hospital sources and residents said yesterday.The operation involves two marine battalions based near this Sunni bastion of anti-US insurgency since the ouster of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime a year ago.More than 100 Iraqis have also been killed and hundreds wounded in the past three days as coalition troops tackle furious assaults by rebels loyal to Sadr.Around 30 coalition troops, including the marines, have now been killed in the same time, military sources said, including a Salvadorian and a Ukrainian.- Nampa-AFP