Foreigners Taken Hostage as Iraqi Rebellion Grows

A widening insurgency battled U.S.-led coalition forces across a broad section of Iraq on Thursday, extending its tactics to the kidnapping of foreigners by taking hostage nearly a dozen missionaries and aid workers.

A year after the fall of Baghdad, Shiite Muslim militia fighters allied with an anti-American cleric were in control of the populous southern cities of Najaf, Kufa and, to some extent, Kut. They were fighting coalition troops for the holy city of Karbala.

Despite a massive presence of Marines in and around Fallouja, west of Baghdad, Sunni Muslim insurgents maintained their hold on the city.

Meanwhile, a senior Iraqi minister resigned, raising questions about whether others would follow suit and undermining U.S. efforts to create an Iraqi government authority that can stand on its own.

Gun battles shattered the night in several Baghdad neighborhoods, and the streets of Abu Ghraib, a city west of the capital, were virtually impassable for several hours because of heavy gunfire between U.S. troops and Iraqi militants.

The north of the country was relatively quiet, but throughout central and southern Iraq insurgents roamed freely, mounting sporadic attacks that made many roads unsafe.

In less than a week, the uprisings -- some of which followed the arrest on murder charges of a top aide to fundamentalist Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtader Sadr -- have imperiled the U.S.-led occupation.

In Washington, the Pentagon was expected today to announce extended tours of duty for some Army troops in Iraq, defense officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Some members of the 1st Armored Division, which was preparing to return home after a yearlong stint, were told that they would have to remain in Iraq for an additional 120 days.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, pledged that the coalition would eliminate the militia of Sadr and bring Sunni insurgents under control in Fallouja. He acknowledged that violence was likely to continue for some time. A new military operation, named Operation Resolute Sword, has been launched to remove Sadr’s forces, he said.

“Sadr’s gang is attempting without success to sabotage progress toward a free and independent Iraq,” Sanchez said. “It is attempting to intimidate the majority of moderate citizens of the country who seek democracy and a society that is ruled by law, and not by the barrel of a gun.”

A hard-line approach, however, could make new enemies for the United States. Popular sentiment against the occupation reached new heights Thursday as large contingents of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, furious about the deaths of civilians at the hands of the American military, organized a mass demonstration that started in Baghdad.

They joined forces to gather food, money, medicine and blood donations to send to anti-American insurgents in Fallouja. The crowd then marched toward the city, which is under siege by about 2,500 Marines, who are fighting to capture militants who killed and mutilated four American contractors last week.

On Thursday, three Japanese were captured by gunmen in southern Iraq, and they were shown repeatedly on the Al Jazeera satellite channel blindfolded, their hands bound, as masked men with automatic weapons threatened to burn them unless Japan agreed to withdraw from Iraq.

The threat -- not broadcast on Japanese television -- was replayed on Arab stations throughout the day. One captive, Noriaki Imai, whose passport was shown on the video, is 19, according to Japan’s NHK television, which identified the hostages as two aid workers and a journalist. The other two are Soichiro Koriyama, 32, and Nahoko Takato, 34. The gunmen displayed a press card for Koriyama from the weekly newspaper Asahi.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said today that Japan had no plan to withdraw its troops, which are noncombat. He said the most important thing was to ensure the safety of the hostages and for them to be rescued.

Meanwhile, seven South Korean Christian missionaries affiliated with the National Biblical Christian Federation Church in Baghdad were captured on the road between the Jordanian border and Baghdad but were later released.

South Korea said today that it stood by its plans to send 3,600 troops to Iraq despite rising violence there, but it placed severe restrictions on travel to Iraq.

In a third kidnapping incident, two men who were seized several days ago by a little-known group in Najaf were shown on an Iranian television station acknowledging that they were Israelis. The Israeli government confirmed that they were Arabs from East Jerusalem.

The two men were also shown in a televised videotape identifying themselves as Nabil George Razouk, 30, and Ahmed Yassin Tikati, 33. They said they were international aid workers.

In the original broadcast on the Iranian network, the two were described as Israeli spies. The videotape showed their Israeli identification documents, an Israeli healthcare card, a supermarket discount card and a U.S. driver’s license.

An aide to Sadr said the cleric’s Al Mahdi army had taken four Spaniards hostage.

Compounding the overall sense of insecurity was the abrupt resignation of Interior Minister Nouri Badran, apparently at the request of civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III.

Badran, a key member of the Iraqi National Accord, one of the secular political groups in Iraq with a seat on the U.S.-backed Governing Council, said Bremer wanted to maintain the sectarian balance between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in key ministry posts. Because a Shiite was appointed this week to the post of defense minister, Bremer asked Badran, a Shiite, to step down.

A new interior minister is expected to be appointed today, coalition officials said. The change comes as a major religious holiday approaches. The holiday is expected to draw as many as 5 million people to Karbala and its shrines, making them obvious targets for bombings or other terrorism.

In Fallouja, one Marine died in fighting against Sunni insurgents that continued for a fourth day. Hospital officials in the city said at least 280 Iraqis had been killed in clashes since U.S. troops surrounded the city Sunday night.

Marines said most of the dead were insurgents, but Fallouja residents said many were civilians trapped in the battles.

“Where is the international community? They should stop this massacre,” said Mohammed Abbas Esawi, 34, who arrived at the home of his wife’s family Thursday morning to find that it had been struck by bombs. His father-in-law, a cousin and two children were injured.

Marine Lt. Col. Gregg Olson said the blame lay with insurgents: “The evildoers chose this battlefield.”

Clerics in the town warned residents to stay indoors and skip prayers today, rather than risk being caught in the fighting.

For much of the day, they have little choice: The U.S. military distributed leaflets announcing a 7 p.m. curfew and banning large public assemblies. Marines said they would fire at groups of young men after curfew if they believed the men were a threat.

Potentially the most serious blow to U.S. efforts here is the growing coordination between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, who now have a common cause: their opposition to the occupation.

On Thursday, Sheik Ahmed Abdul Rafour, a member of the Islamic Scholars Committee and an imam at the recently renamed Mother of All Villages mosque in Baghdad, helped organize a miles-long convoy of cars and trucks to take food, water and medicine to Fallouja. He said that 90 trucks made the journey and that the U.S. military allowed some trucks to enter the city and distribute the cargo, but that crowds accompanying the delivery were kept outside. About 10,000 people participated in the march.

“This was useful for joining Sunni and Shiite.... Of course it will lead to a general uprising against the Americans,” he said.

As the convoy began to move toward Fallouja early in the morning, it appeared to be part pilgrimage, part political demonstration. Hundreds of people on foot kept pace with the cars and trucks, which because of the crowds slowed to just a few miles an hour. Some shouted slogans, including “Stop the violence!” and “Support the people of Fallouja’s jihad!”

At the starting point -- a mosque on the western edge of Baghdad -- pickups and flatbed trucks were loaded with sacks of rice, flour, sugar, tea, cooking oil, water and medicines. Some people had given blood at a donation center before coming.

One elderly Shiite man carried the plain green flag that is a symbol of the prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein.

Abdul Rahman Yassin, 34, a businessman dressed in a dark brown suit and tie, praised the new cooperation between the two Muslim sects.

“We are all feeling like patriotic Iraqis who are rushing to express their loyalty to their homeland. What is happening now, thank God, maybe is going to lead to the unity of the Iraqi people, although not the way the Americans planned it,” he said.

Supplies for a second convoy were being amassed at the Abu Khanifa mosque in a Sunni neighborhood in west Baghdad. Ali Jasim, 25, a Shiite college student, unloaded his truck of water and rice as he talked about his new feeling of kinship with Sunnis.

“We do have a common enemy. Together we will face them. At the beginning they came to liberate us from Saddam, but that was a lie,” he said as he hoisted the 100-pound bags of rice off his truck and piled them inside the mosque walls.

“They are here to steal our country, our natural resources. We do not need their freedom, their ‘democracy,’ as they always keep saying.”

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Thursday that the administration currently favors a plan to transfer power in Iraq by expanding the Governing Council.

Powell told a Senate subcommittee that the idea of an expanded council was the approach “getting the most attention right now and seems the most practical one, in terms of the time available to us.” He added, however, that no decisions had been made.

Also under consideration are proposals to leave the current council in place, or to convene a broad gathering of Iraqi interests, in the style of Afghanistan’s loya jirga, Powell said.

He also downplayed reports that Sadr’s militia had been supported by Iranians.

“I do not sense that [Sadr] is enjoying great support from other Shiite groups other than his own within the country, or, for that matter, from outside the country,” Powell said.

*

Times staff writers Tony Perry in Fallouja, Edmund Sanders in Baghdad, Ken Ellingwood in Jerusalem and John Hendren and Paul Richter in Washington, and special correspondents Colin Joyce in Tokyo and Said Rifai and Suhail Ahmed in Baghdad contributed to this report.

*

Thursday’s developments

Fallouja Urban warfare continues; large Shiite protest and convoy support Sunni insurrection.

Najaf and Kufa Shiite militia fighters loyal to cleric Muqtader Sadr control these two cities.

Kidnappings reported Japanese: Two men and a woman are taken hostage in southern Iraq by masked gunmen.

South Koreans: Seven Christian missionaries are kidnapped on a road between the Jordanian border and Baghdad. They were later freed.

Arabs: Iranian television footage shows two residents of East Jerusalem, who describe themselves as international aid workers.

Sources: Associated Press, BBC, Times reports

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---

In stories after April 9, 2004, Shiite cleric Muqtader Sadr is correctly referred to as Muqtada Sadr.

--- END NOTE ---