British forces back in Iraq town after troop deaths ( 2003-06-29 09:47) (Agencies)
British forces returned Saturday to an Iraqi town where six British troops
were killed, as US forces facing now daily attacks blamed on Saddam Hussein
loyalists reported another soldier killed.
A US army soldier observes the street during
a weapons search on the outskirts of Baghdad June 28, 2003. US forces in
Iraq found the bodies of two missing soldiers on Saturday north of
the Iraqi capital just hours after guerrilla-style attackers killed one
serviceman and wounded four others in a Baghdad neighborhood.
[Reuters]
US forces also found the bodies of
two soldiers who went missing Wednesday in central Iraq, home to the country's
minority Sunni Muslims and Saddam's former stronghold.
The British force of 500 troops sent to Majjar met a delegation of Shi'ite
Muslim clerics and local dignitaries in the town where six British military
police were killed on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry in London said.
"The troops... have been welcomed by the local people," a ministry spokesman
said.
"They told the people they were there to help them re-establish their
community, not to punish them. The message was: 'We're not going to be
frightened off, but neither are we going to punish the people in the way Saddam
Hussein would have done'."
Before the troops re-entered Majjar, a British plane dropped more than 50,000
leaflets over the area, urging a return to calm. The British military says all
14 British troops killed or hurt in last Tuesday's clashes were victims of a
misunderstanding between troops and residents over arms searches.
The Shi'ites, in the majority in Iraq but oppressed by Saddam for a quarter
of a century, had been perceived as less hostile, even friendly, to British
forces. In 1991, Majjar residents fought fierce battles against Iraqi troops
when Saddam crushed an uprising.
In the latest violence against US forces, one American soldier was killed and
four wounded in a grenade attack on a US regiment in a mainly Shi'ite Baghdad
district that until recently was called Saddam City, a US military spokeswoman
said. The attack occurred late Friday.
Although Washington blames the attacks on die-hard Saddam loyalists, many
Iraqis said after the Iraqi leader was toppled on April 9 that US and British
forces would face discontent if they did not restore government to Iraqi hands
quickly.
The US and British troop deaths underline how dangerous it remains for forces
from the two countries to impose order in a country awash with weapons. Iraqis
largely ignored a mid-June deadline to surrender arms.
"WAR NOT OVER"
US Central Command gave no details on the circumstances of the deaths of its
two soldiers who went missing Wednesday, but a senior US military official said:
"The first clear message that we have to take out of here is that this war is
not over."
The bodies of the two soldiers were found in the village of Banat al-Hassan,
about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad.
"At six in the morning we found the Americans buried over there," taxi driver
Naji Shihab told Reuters Television, pointing to a pile of straw on the side of
the road.
"After that a group of Americans backed with aircraft deployed in the area
and at about four o'clock they took the bodies and left. (The bodies) were
bloated."
Before Saturday's discovery, 22 US soldiers had been killed by hostile fire
since President Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1.
Washington and London have vowed to carry on with their Iraq mission despite
the recent troop deaths.
A US military official said troops had detained more than 900 "former regime
loyalists, former Fedayeen (militia) and other criminals" in the past week and
were conducting more than 2,000 patrols across Iraq every day.
Iraqis celebrated the fall of Saddam more than two months ago, but calls for
their own government have grown louder and they have grown impatient with the
US-led occupation, which is enforced by 156,000 troops, some 53,000 of them in
Baghdad.
Citizens remain frustrated by daily power outages and a shortage of drinking
water to help them cool off in temperatures soaring above 100 Fahrenheit, as
well as high rates of crime and unemployment.
In Baghdad, fire ripped through a warehouse storing paper used for printing
Iraqi dinars Saturday and firefighters and US troops battled a fire at a sulfur
plant in northern Iraq for a third day.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fires or if they were linked to
recent waves of sabotage and looting.