Battle Rages in Baghdad Neighborhood

Intense fighting broke out between Iraqi security forces and gunmen in a volatile Sunni Arab section of the capital, leaving at least three people dead and terrifying residents during a battle that began during the night and extended into the daylight hours Monday.

Authorities said about 50 Sunni gunmen had fought the country’s Shiite-dominated security forces for nine hours in the northern neighborhood of Adhamiya, forcing U.S. troops supporting the Iraqi forces to close down streets and entrances to the area.

Some residents entered the clash, exchanging gunfire with Iraqi soldiers and police they believed to be members of a death squad.

The violence, with its sectarian overtones, highlighted how fractured and fearful the city has become and overshadowed a brief resumption of the trial of former President Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants on human rights abuse charges.

“No one can trust anybody now,” said Ali Ubaydi, an Adhamiya resident who said the gunmen had fired heavy machine guns at the Iraqi soldiers guarding the neighborhood.

“No one knows what happened or who they were,” he said of the gunmen.

Khairulla Hamdi, another resident, complained that the closure of the area by American forces had made it difficult to help the wounded. Throughout the day, civilian cars flying white flags carried the injured to nearby hospitals, he said.

At least three people were killed and 20 were injured in the Adhamiya fighting, said Mustafa Mashhadani, a spokesman for the Muslim Scholars Assn. The Sunni organization has complained of abuses by security forces that allegedly have been infiltrated by Shiite militias and are accused of acting at times as death squads. Sunni residents of Adhamiya “are determined not to allow such forces to enter their neighborhood, so they resisted this force,” he said.

Gen. Jawad Rommi Daiani, an area police commander, drove through the neighborhood, telling residents through a loudspeaker that they were not under attack. He later appeared on state television, explaining what had happened and appealing for calm.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni political group, also called for restraint.

Inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, meanwhile, the trial of Hussein and his co-defendants continued.

A panel of handwriting experts assembled by the prosecution reported that the former leader’s signature appeared on documents allegedly ordering a 1982 campaign of reprisal and execution of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujayl.

But Hussein, his co-defendants and lawyers questioned the credibility of the panel, demanding that a committee of experts from outside Iraq be assembled. They alleged that the handwriting reports had been conducted under the auspices of the Interior Ministry, which many Sunnis perceive as under the control of Iranian-backed Shiite militias. Sunnis dominated in Hussein’s regime.

“We want the court to call for the international experts from any country except Iran,” defense attorney Khalil Dulaimi told the judge.

“Also Israel,” Hussein piped in.

Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel Rahman told the court that a defense motion to have him removed from trying the case had been rejected by an appellate court. He fined one of Hussein’s defense attorneys 2,000 Iraqi dinars, or about $1.33, for making the appeal.

“Everyone should understand that as a judge I don’t have any personal biases or political positions toward the defendants,” he told the court. “This case will be decided upon the evidence and according to the law.”

Defendants also cast doubt on the integrity of lead prosecutor Jaafar Mousawi, saying they’d heard the garrulous Shiite jurist making inappropriate remarks on the U.S.-funded Sawa radio station.

“This is not right,” said co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, Hussein’s half brother and former head of Iraqi intelligence. “How can the news of the court be on the air? This is not the first time. I have interviews with him in newspapers. He has convicted us before trying us. The prosecutor is biased and dishonest.”

Mousawi demanded that the word “dishonest” be stricken from the record, a step the judge said he would consider.

In Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, meanwhile, hundreds of high school students condemned the court, carrying Iraqi flags and pictures of the former president as they demonstrated in the streets.

Elsewhere on Monday, the brother of a prominent Sunni politician was found slain in the capital. Saleh Mutlak’s brother, Taha, had recently been kidnapped in northern Baghdad. Mutlak is the second Sunni leader whose brother has been killed in as many weeks. On Thursday, gunmen killed the brother of Tariq Hashimi as he drove through an eastern Baghdad neighborhood with a friend.

Also on Monday, gunmen in the capital kidnapped three engineers employed at a local electricity plant on their way to work. The day before, armed men wearing police uniforms and driving police vehicles had abducted a dozen employees from Al Warkaa Investment Co. in eastern Baghdad, according to a police official.

Police recovered 17 bodies from various areas of Baghdad, including seven found inside a Jeep Cherokee near a primary school in the troubled Dora neighborhood. An additional five bodies were found in the street on the other side of the school. Three bodies found in Shula showed signs of torture. Near the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya, the bodies of two men who had been shot were found on the bank of the Tigris River.

Hospital officials reported that 12 municipal workers, reportedly street cleaners, had been killed in a pair of drive-by shootings in the Dora area.

A roadside bomb apparently intended for Iraqi security forces patrolling downtown killed one civilian and wounded four others, authorities said.

In Baqubah, north of Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed a civilian and injured his son. Drive-by gunmen attacked a minibus carrying students from Baqubah University, killing two and injuring one other.

Times staff writers Borzou Daragahi, Zainab Hussein, Suhail Ahmad and Shamil Aziz in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Baqubah contributed to this report.