Army Patrol Under Ambush Kills 11 Iraqis

U.S. forces said Friday they killed 11 Iraqis in battles with guerrilla-style fighters who ambushed an Army patrol near this central farming town, an indication of what appeared to be growing armed resistance to occupation that came just hours after a mortar attack on a nearby U.S. base.

By the time the sun was above the horizon on the Fourth of July here, 18 Americans had been hurt in what appeared to be the most serious attack on a U.S. base since Saddam Hussein was ousted nearly three months ago.

In addition, the patrol was ambushed three times during an eight-hour period by an estimated 50 Iraqi fighters. No Americans were hurt in the ambushes.

The attacks came as the Arabic-language satellite TV station Al Jazeera broadcast 10 minutes of what it said was a 20-minute tape of a voice purported to be that of Hussein, calling on Iraqis to resist the U.S.-led occupation. The tape was recorded June 14, the network said.

Soldiers at the base, which the Americans call Sustainer Army Airfield, said the mortar fire Thursday night came from somewhere in the sunflower fields that surround it. The sprawling air base that Hussein built near this town about an hour north of Baghdad is now home to thousands of U.S. troops.

Four or five projectiles were fired at the airfield. One landed inside the compound at 10:35 p.m., wounding the soldiers.

Less than two hours later, the verdant farmland that lines both sides of Highway 1 north of here turned into ambush country for a convoy of 7th Cavalry scouts.

According to American accounts after the events, the soldiers came under attack three times over eight hours by an enemy lying in wait in trenches and behind earthen berms on both sides of the highway.

“I don’t know who they were,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher McDaniel, 26, commander of a Bradley fighting vehicle. “But when they shoot at me, I shoot back.”

Eleven guerrillas died in the skirmishes, the U.S. military said, but dozens appeared to have escaped toward nearby houses and Bedouin camps and were not pursued.

The guerrillas were armed with AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns, McDaniel said. He expressed satisfaction that the outcome was one-sided in favor of the Americans.

“They were engaged and destroyed,” he said. “Our mission is to make sure this route is clear for all the convoys coming down.”

The fighting occurred in the “Sunni Triangle” area of central Iraq, which has emerged as a thorn in the side of the occupation. On June 10, the U.S. military launched a major campaign to root out what were described as holdouts from Hussein’s Baath Party and members of the elite Fedayeen Saddam who had gathered in villages in the area.

That four-day operation involved thousands of U.S. troops and resulted in the detention of about 400 Iraqis, most of whom were questioned and released.

Farmers and herders working in the fields near the highway were reluctant to talk about the battles. But one resident made clear where local sympathies lie.

“People here don’t like the Americans,” said Faik Madina, 27, who described himself as a former member of Hussein’s Republican Guard and Special Security Organization.

“There is a consensus developing that anybody cooperating with the Americans will be boycotted,” he said. “One of the reasons is that as soon as there is a clash, they don’t differentiate. They shoot randomly.

“Our only wish is the return of Saddam,” he continued. “People here love Saddam, because from the time they were born he was doing good for them. He never did them harm.”

Al Jazeera television editors said the tape they broadcast was transmitted to their offices via telephone Friday.

The release came a day after U.S. authorities offered a $25-million reward for information leading to Hussein’s capture or for proof of his death.

“To begin with, I say that I miss you so much, O loved ones, although I am among you and within your ranks,” the voice on the tape said. “Brothers and sons, brave women and men, I bring you the good news that cells and brigades of jihad, sacrifice and their organizations have indeed been formed on a large scale. They have started their honorable actions in fighting the enemy and the aggression.”

The voice also said that “what they called the weapons of mass destruction was nothing but a cover for their plans.... I ask the invaders, where are these weapons?”

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said U.S. experts would review the tape to try to determine if it was Hussein.

The use of mortars in the attack on the U.S. base was a new tactic and appeared to be a sign of emboldened resistance.

The assault began when unseen enemy fighters fired flares and steady small-arms bursts, Army officials said. The attackers disappeared into the fields surrounding the sprawling base. None were captured.

“It was dark, and not a lot could be seen,” said Maj. Edward Bryja, a spokesman. Bryja would not say where on the base the mortar struck.

“We’re in a hostile area, and anything is possible,” Sgt. David Cox, a 28-year-old member of the Florida Air National Guard, said at the entrance to the air base. “Safety is the No. 1 priority. A lot of people want to go home. But we know this is our job.”

Nine of the 18 wounded soldiers were treated and had returned to duty Friday, Army officials said. Two of the remaining injured were in serious condition and were being treated in the base hospital, Bryja said.

Residents said they have grown tired of the American presence here and of the repeated incursions into their neighborhoods and the weapons searches.

“We want our freedom back,” said Yakoob Hussein, a 28-year-old potato farmer who supplements his income selling soft drinks and ice to the American soldiers outside the base entrance. “They don’t allow us to leave our houses at night.”

New details also emerged Friday about the killing of a U.S. soldier late Thursday in Baghdad. U.S. officials said he was shot by a sniper while sitting in the “gunner’s hatch” of a Bradley fighting vehicle guarding the Iraq National Museum.

Earlier that day, the museum had opened to journalists for the first display of its collection since thieves ravaged the building as U.S. troops entered the city.

U.S. soldiers who were in the ambushed contingent said they had set out in two Humvees and three Bradley fighting vehicles to patrol the main highway linking Baghdad to the cities of Tikrit and Mosul.

At about 11:50 p.m., McDaniel said, they ran into the first ambush about five miles north of their base, a former Iraqi army station along the four-lane highway. They were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, which he said had no effect on the heavily armored Bradleys. They responded with their own machine guns.

“We took care of the shooters” in a half-hour firefight, he said. After the battle was finished, the American troops withdrew about four miles in the direction of their base to reestablish communications and link up with reinforcements. At that stage, they came under attack again and killed more of the enemy.

Later, they returned to the scene of the first ambush to collect the bodies and weapons, only to be attacked from the same fields by other fighters who had drifted back into the area. The final skirmish was wrapped up about 8 a.m., he said.

The bodies of those killed were taken to a base near the airport in Balad, and soldiers collected machine guns and RPGs.

After they returned from patrol, the soldiers had a holiday meal of hamburgers and hot dogs, washed down with near-beer and Coca-Cola.

Lt. Jason Fritz of Bethlehem, Pa., assessed the Independence Day holiday as “a little sad, but OK.” By the end of the day, some of the Americans were out on Highway 1 again on a more mundane mission -- buying ice at a roadside stand for their drinks.

Fritz said he was not surprised by the attack, noting that another patrol had been ambushed in the vicinity two nights earlier.

“We have been facing this stuff since we came up here,” he said. “When someone fires at us, we don’t take that lightly.”