12 Marines Are Killed as Violence Spreads in Iraq

By Alissa J. Rubin

April 7, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

NAJAF, Iraq —

Anti-American violence intensified across Iraq on Tuesday, spreading to previously quiet areas of the country and leaving a dozen Marines dead in one clash.

The U.S.-led coalition was struggling to contain the strife in Sunni and Shiite Muslim areas after three days of fighting claimed the lives of 30 American troops, two other coalition soldiers and at least 135 Iraqis.

Some of the heaviest fighting Tuesday occurred in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi when insurgents attacked a Marine position near the provincial governor’s palace, killing 12 Marines and wounding 20 more, according to a Pentagon official in Washington. The official said Marines inflicted “heavy casualties” on the insurgents, but offered no details.

Marines in tanks, Humvees and helicopters also engaged in intense battles with insurgents in the nearby besieged city of Fallouja, killing nearly three dozen Iraqis.

In southern Iraq, militants allied to Muqtader Sadr, a virulently anti-American Shiite cleric, staged attacks in four cities, taking over government buildings and promising to help end the U.S. occupation.

The spreading revolt by Shiite militants presents the Bush administration with a scenario it has long feared: a loss of control over the majority Shiites, who are considered essential to an orderly hand-over of power to Iraqis as planned on June 30.

To quell the violence, the U.S. may have to resort to heavy force. That could serve to consolidate anti-American sentiment and set off a cycle of retaliation.

At his ranch near Crawford, Texas, President Bush held a 20-minute telephone conference call to discuss the fast-breaking events in Iraq with top Cabinet officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Bush “received an update about the offensive military action” in Fallouja and other parts of Iraq and was told that coalition troops were “performing well,” White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

He said Bush, who is scheduled to stay at his ranch until Monday, would receive updates “as warranted.”

In Baghdad, U.S. civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III, although trying to play down the extent of the recent Shiite rebellion, suggested that the coalition’s entire mission was now at stake. “The dividing line in Iraq now is the people who support democracy and the people who want to return to an Iraq where power is determined by the guy with the guns,” Bremer said in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show.”

U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington said their plan for a June 30 hand-over remained in place. Their near-term priority is to defeat the insurgency and support Iraqis friendly to the coalition. “There are some elements that need to be confronted; the option that cannot be considered is waiting to fight them another day,” said a senior U.S. official in Baghdad.

U.S. officials acknowledged that more bloodshed might be unavoidable.

“We have more people, more power, more money than them. We will win,” the senior U.S. official said. “It’s a matter of how aggressively they fight. We have to demonstrate we are committed to shutting them down.”

During the last several days, radical Sunni and Shiite groups -- longtime rivals -- have praised each other’s attacks on coalition troops and promised to stand shoulder to shoulder against the occupation.

Iraqi political science professor Jabber Habib said he believed the two groups were drawing strength from each other and spreading the insurrection.

Sadr’s followers may have viewed the brutal attack on four American security contractors last week in Fallouja, a Sunni stronghold, as a boost for their efforts to fight the occupation. Sunnis, meanwhile, could cite the attacks by Sadr’s Shiite militia as evidence that a wide sector of Iraqi society is joining a resistance they started.

“The only ones who benefit from [Sadr’s militia attacks] are the radical Sunnis. They will say the resistance is not just Sunnis,” said Habib, who teaches at Baghdad University.

The only Iraqi public support for recent U.S. military action has come from members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, who in a news conference Tuesday said they were resolute about cracking down on Sunni and Shiite militants.

News of the dozen Marine deaths came from Washington, where a defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. suffered the casualties in a guerrilla uprising in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

A U.S. soldier was killed in Baghdad on Tuesday, a day after two were killed there.

“There’s been a number of casualties this week, and that’s because we’re conducting offensive operations,” the official said. “A lot of the operations that we’re seeing, as in Fallouja, are offensive operations, and when you conduct offensive operations, there is a risk of casualties.”

Across southern Iraq, Sadr’s supporters ignored American calls for negotiation. The U.S. unsealed a warrant for Sadr’s arrest this week, saying he bore responsibility in the killing of a rival cleric last April.

Sadr, who was holed up in a mosque in Kufa, moved overnight Monday to nearby Najaf, and took refuge in the Imam Ali shrine. The move appeared calculated to heighten his profile among Shiites, for whom Najaf is the most holy city in Iraq.

Scores of Sadr’s black-clad militia members, known as the Al Mahdi army, some with face masks, lounged outside the shrine, talking in small groups and toting Kalashnikovs and bullet belts. Some had hand grenades tucked into their belts. Others brought swords, which they swung as they walked casually through the narrow streets around the shrine.

Sadr supporters established an armed presence at police stations and hospitals and set up checkpoints at the entrance to the city. One police officer, who asked not to be identified, said Sadr’s men “controlled all police stations, and they took our arms and our vehicles. They told the police to come to work, and some of us were given Sadr badges to put on.”

“We are resentful.... Najaf was one of the most peaceful cities, but now it is living under chaos,” he said.

Sadr addressed the faithful in the Imam Ali shrine, describing himself as the “fighting arm” of the senior Shiite cleric in the country, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Sistani, who is beloved by most Shiites, has called for calm and urged Iraqis to resist taking up arms against the occupation.

Sadr’s aides made clear that their leader had no intention of heeding Sistani’s call for restraint. “The issue now is bigger than one that can be solved by a statement from Sistani,” said Sadr’s deputy, Sheik Quais Khazaali. “It now involves the bloodshed of innocent people; it has become a people’s war. The Americans should withdraw because losses on their part are going to be too big.”

Some Najaf residents expressed disgust at Sadr’s battle with the U.S. “We can hardly believe that we finally got rid of Saddam after 35 years and could start a new life, and now with this new crisis of Muqtader, everything that we have tried to build is collapsing,” said Abu Mustapha, an agricultural engineer.

In Nasiriya, Italian troops attempting to seize control of three bridges over the Euphrates River from Sadr’s militants killed 15 Iraqis. About 12 Italian soldiers received minor injuries, a coalition spokeswoman told the Italian news agency ANSA.

Fighting in the southern city of Amarah between Sadr’s followers and British troops killed 15 Iraqis and wounded eight, a coalition spokesman said.

And in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, a Ukrainian soldier was killed and five of his colleagues were wounded when militants attacked an armored personnel carrier, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. Ukraine has about 1,650 troops in Iraq, the third-largest contingent among countries that did not take part in last year’s major combat operations.

By Tuesday night in Fallouja, a major U.S. offensive was underway and 500 Marines had entered the city, using tanks and helicopters to battle scores of insurgents. It marked the first major incursion since Marines surrounded the city Sunday night.

The Marines later said they were holding an area of the city to use as a base of operations in an attempt to retake control.

Although no Marines were killed in Fallouja on Tuesday, three were wounded by enemy fire. And on Monday, one Marine died in a Fallouja gunfight. Four others were killed elsewhere in Al Anbar province, a Marine statement released Tuesday said. Fighting in Fallouja killed at least 50 Iraqis on Tuesday, the military estimated. Another 20 Iraqis were detained.

In Baghdad, there was heavy gunfire overnight Tuesday in the Sunni-dominated Adimiya neighborhood. Shops closed early and people hurried to their homes, worried that it was a matter of time before more violence erupted.

Times staff writers Edmund Sanders and Nicholas Riccardi and special correspondent Said Rifai in Baghdad, special correspondent Saad Fakr Deen in Najaf and Times staff writers John Hendren and Aaron Zitner in Washington contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Grim toll

Coalition deaths in the last three days:

Tuesday

* 12 Marines in Ramadi

* 1 U.S. soldier in Baghdad

* 1 Ukrainian soldier in Kut

Monday

* 1 Marine in Fallouja

* 4 Marines elsewhere in Al Anbar province

* 2 U.S. soldiers in Baghdad

Sunday