Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Banner Left
Banner Right

US choppers strike Shi’ite area in Baghdad

US choppers strike Shi’ite area in Baghdad

BAGHDAD – US helicopters blasted targets in Baghdad yesterday as a showdown intensified with radical Shi’ite militiamen challenging America’s postwar blueprint for Iraq.

Reuters journalists said they saw two Apache helicopters attacking targets in the mainly Shi’ite Shuala district in the northwest of the city, where a US vehicle was in flames. There was no firm word on casualties in the strike, thought to be the first of its kind in Baghdad since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein nearly a year ago, but an anti-US cleric said five people had been killed and 10 wounded.Iraq’s US administrator Paul Bremer vowed to crack down on firebrand Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a day after battles in Baghdad and near the shrine city of Najaf killed 48 Iraqis, eight American soldiers and one Salvadoran soldier.In other violence, the US army said a Marine was killed west of Baghdad yesterday, an American soldier was killed by a car bomb in the city of Kirkuk on Sunday, and another soldier was killed on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack in Mosul.A US Marine also died on Sunday from wounds sustained in an attack the previous day.Overall, 12 US troops have been killed in combat over the past 24 hours.Since the start of the war, 422 US soldiers have been killed in action.Thousands of Iraqis have been killed.The violence opens a new front for US-led forces already struggling to contain attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents.It also complicates the task of UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss US plans to hand sovereignty to Iraqis at the end of June and future elections.Bremer said Sadr was an outlaw trying to usurp legitimate authority.”We will not tolerate this,” he told an Iraqi ministerial committee for national security.Sadr responded defiantly.”I’m accused by one of the leaders of evil, Bremer, of being an outlaw,” he said in a statement read out in a mosque in Kufa, near Najaf, where he is staging a sit-in.”If that means breaking the law of the American tyranny and its filthy constitution (for Iraq), I’m proud of that and that is why I’m in revolt,” the 30-year-old cleric said.A senior US military official said the violence was not a generalised Shi’ite uprising, adding that he expected “moderate majority Shi’ites to come out and speak against this level of extremism” in the coming days.US forces sealed off the troubled Sunni town of Falluja, where four American security guards were killed last week.Witnesses reported heavy firing on the outskirts overnight and US forces closed the nearby Baghdad-Amman highway.In west Baghdad, insurgents attacked foreigners travelling in a civilian car, detonating a roadside bomb and firing small arms.A passenger, apparently American, said he had fired back.A US Marine said no one had been hurt.The car was on fire.- Nampa-ReutersThere was no firm word on casualties in the strike, thought to be the first of its kind in Baghdad since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein nearly a year ago, but an anti-US cleric said five people had been killed and 10 wounded.Iraq’s US administrator Paul Bremer vowed to crack down on firebrand Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a day after battles in Baghdad and near the shrine city of Najaf killed 48 Iraqis, eight American soldiers and one Salvadoran soldier.In other violence, the US army said a Marine was killed west of Baghdad yesterday, an American soldier was killed by a car bomb in the city of Kirkuk on Sunday, and another soldier was killed on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack in Mosul.A US Marine also died on Sunday from wounds sustained in an attack the previous day.Overall, 12 US troops have been killed in combat over the past 24 hours.Since the start of the war, 422 US soldiers have been killed in action.Thousands of Iraqis have been killed.The violence opens a new front for US-led forces already struggling to contain attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents.It also complicates the task of UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to discuss US plans to hand sovereignty to Iraqis at the end of June and future elections.Bremer said Sadr was an outlaw trying to usurp legitimate authority.”We will not tolerate this,” he told an Iraqi ministerial committee for national security.Sadr responded defiantly.”I’m accused by one of the leaders of evil, Bremer, of being an outlaw,” he said in a statement read out in a mosque in Kufa, near Najaf, where he is staging a sit-in.”If that means breaking the law of the American tyranny and its filthy constitution (for Iraq), I’m proud of that and that is why I’m in revolt,” the 30-year-old cleric said.A senior US military official said the violence was not a generalised Shi’ite uprising, adding that he expected “moderate majority Shi’ites to come out and speak against this level of extremism” in the coming days.US forces sealed off the troubled Sunni town of Falluja, where four American security guards were killed last week.Witnesses reported heavy firing on the outskirts overnight and US forces closed the nearby Baghdad-Amman highway.In west Baghdad, insurgents attacked foreigners travelling in a civilian car, detonating a roadside bomb and firing small arms.A passenger, apparently American, said he had fired back.A US Marine said no one had been hurt.The car was on fire.- Nampa-Reuters

Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!

Latest News