Islamists, Police Stage Fierce Battle in Iraq’s North

Scrambling over rooftops with grenades hanging from their chests, three well-armed Islamic militants battled Kurdish forces Wednesday as hundreds of bullets rattled through a hilltop neighborhood and families zigzagged through alleys seeking shelter.

The 50-minute clash -- punctuated by fire from Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades -- ended at dusk as the militants lay fatally wounded on a rooftop. Two other people -- a young girl and a colonel in the Sulaymaniyah security department -- were also killed as more than 100 Kurdish special police fired from around corners and over garden walls.

“They were planning to make some operation against the Americans,” said Dana Ahmed Majeed, director general of the Kurdish security forces. “Some places are very dangerous.”

The fighting underscored the volatility in northern Iraq as guerrillas in Ansar al Islam, who were chased from their mountain bases by U.S. and Kurdish troops in March, regroup. Ansar has links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network and, according to Kurdish intelligence officials, is attempting to join other Islamic extremists in strikes on coalition forces in Iraq.

There has been no independent confirmation of Ansar’s role in Wednesday’s fighting, although the United States has blamed the group -- along with loyalists of the former regime of Saddam Hussein and foreign fighters -- for the continuing violence against American soldiers and Iraqis who help the occupation forces.

That violence continued Wednesday, claiming the lives of two U.S. soldiers in separate attacks and bringing the military death toll to 281 since the war began March 20.

Both soldiers killed Wednesday died in attacks on Army convoys involving homemade bombs, one of the most common -- and often deadly -- tactics now used against coalition troops.

The first fatal strike occurred on a road outside Fallouja, a conservative city to the west of Baghdad where opposition to the U.S. presence has been intense.

Attackers strung together 10 jury-rigged bombs, a military official said. Three of the devices exploded as a convoy passed about 7:15 a.m., killing one soldier and wounding three, authorities said. The other bombs failed to go off.

The second soldier died in an attack on a convoy in Baghdad at 7:45 a.m. It was the second such ambush of U.S. forces traveling in the capital in as many days.

Coalition forces are being targeted a dozen times a day, on average, military spokesman Army Col. Guy Shields said.

Violence appeared to be escalating among Iraqis as well. Five people -- two police officers and three civilians -- died in a shootout at a currency exchange in central Baghdad provoked by men described as criminals from among the 30,000 released from prison by Hussein before the U.S.-led invasion.

In a further sign of growing concerns about security, the British aid agency Oxfam withdrew the last of its 15 foreign workers from Baghdad, handing over to a 50-member Iraqi staff responsibility for its water and sanitation projects.

Oxfam is at least the fourth nongovernmental organization to evacuate its personnel since terrorists bombed the U.N. headquarters in the capital Aug. 19, killing 23 people and stirring fears that all foreigners are now targets.

Authorities investigating the bombing have interviewed more than 150 people, including U.N. workers and other possible witnesses, the FBI said. There are no suspects, the agency said.

“It’s a tedious process,” said Thomas Fuentes, the chief FBI investigator in Baghdad. “It could have been someone from a number of groups. We have no indication so far that it was one group versus another.”

The investigation is also continuing into the Aug. 7 truck bombing at the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, which killed 17 people. Authorities have not linked the two bombings.

The standoff in Sulaymaniyah began about 2:30 p.m., when Kurdish forces went to a house to question a man named Mullah Namo about his alleged plans to renew his relationship with Ansar.

Trained in Osama bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan, Namo was one of several hundred extremists to join Ansar when the group was founded in 2001. Last spring, he accepted an amnesty offer by the Kurdish government in the north and left Ansar’s battered strongholds along the Iranian border.

Kurdish intelligence officials said Namo had recently reconnected with militant Muslims. He refused to accompany police Wednesday and barricaded himself in a house with two other extremists. Police called in Namo’s father and uncle in attempts to negotiate a surrender.

Namo and the other men fled the house and jumped over rooftops, settling on the rooftop of another home. Police continued negotiating, twice extending their deadlines to attack.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Namo agreed to give himself up, but when authorities approached, he and the other extremists opened fire, killing a young girl and Col. Mohammed Hussein. Police scattered through streets and alleys. Mothers and children ran for safety. Security forces climbed on other rooftops as gunfire and grenade explosions echoed across the city.

Khalid Izat Ali hunkered with his wife and four children in their home across the street. A bullet shattered their window. Another put a hole in their water tank.

Ali peeked from his rooftop after the shooting ended, watching boys, silhouetted against a setting sun, pick up bullet casings from the dusty street. Neighbors cheered as the body of a militant was pulled from the house; the two other extremists died en route to a hospital.

In Washington, the Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress for more money to cover the reconstruction costs in Iraq, White House Deputy Press Secretary Claire Buchan said. She did not say how much would be sought or when President Bush would send the request to Capitol Hill.

In April, Congress passed a measure that included about $65 billion to pay for U.S. military and reconstruction efforts in Iraq through Sept. 30.

The deployment of about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq has been costing about $4 billion a month. The reconstruction funds are largely being spent on projects such as restoring electricity and water supplies and repairing hospitals and schools.

Fleishman reported from Sulaymaniyah and McDonnell from Baghdad and Fallouja. Times staff writers Carol J. Williams in Baghdad, Maggie Farley at the United Nations and Edwin Chen in Crawford, Texas, contributed to this report.