Massive US Onslaught on Samarra, Scores Killed

AFP reported that ambulance driver Ahmad Yassin said US troops wouldn’t let him drive the wounded out of the city’s Al-Qadisiyah district, where many homes had been reduced to rubble.

The US military said troops had killed 109 “insurgents” and wounded one in the fighting.

Samarra medical officials gave almost matching tallies for the dead.

“The death toll is 90 killed and 180 wounded,” said Dr Khalid Ahmed at Samarra’s main hospital.

A US helicopter was hit by enemy fire but landed safely at a US base, the military said, adding there were no casualties.

A US soldier was also killed in the onslaught and four others wounded.

“A First Infantry Division soldier was killed at around 1:00 pm (1000 GMT)” as Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces secured areas throughout Samarra,” a US military statement said.

Armed clashes flared up late Thursday in the predominantly Sunni Muslim city as the US occupation forces moved into the heart of the city to take control over key buildings.

Terrified Residents

As the US forces fiercely pounded the city, residents cowered in their homes.

“We are terrified by the violent approach used by the Americans to subdue the city,” Associated Press quoted Mahmoud Saleh, a 33-year-old civil servant as saying.

“My wife and children are scared to death and they have not been able to sleep since last night. I hope that the fighting ends as soon as possible.”

The US military said the attack was aimed at reclaiming one of the resistance-held areas in the Sunni Muslim triangle ahead of nationwide parliamentary elections planned for January.

Samarra inhabitants and some Iraqi officials, however, described the offensive as needless, arguing talks were close to finding a peaceful resolution to an ongoing crisis in the city, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Local Iraqi officials, moreover, warned that the US offensive on the city would wreck violence into other neighboring Iraqi cities.

“I have … warned the Americans if there is any violence in Balad and Duluiya it is because of what is happening in Samarra,” said governor of Salahuddin province Hamed Hamud Al-Qaissy.

“We were in talks with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi about the situation in Samarra including reaching an agreement to allow Iraqi forces to enter the city. We were surprised by this military offensive,” AFP quoted Khaled Naji al-Samarrai, leader of the Samarra political association, as saying.

The US military said the offensive was in response to what it called “repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces” (the term US military uses for resistance activists) in the city, where US troops have been largely absent since June.

Some 2,500 US forces and 1,000 Iraqi army and national guardsmen, backed by armored vehicles and warplanes stormed the city before dawn Friday.

Smoke was seen rising from the area around the Imam Ali Al-Hadi and Imam Hassan Al-Askari shrine, raising fears for one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims.

By mid-day, US forces were posted at the city hall and police stations, while Iraqi troops were in full control of religious and cultural sites including the famous spiraling Al-Malwiya mosque, built in the 9th century AD on Samarra’s outskirts.

But fighting persisted and scholars called for holy war from the loudspeakers of mosques.

The new US offensive came a day after the war-torn Iraq was rocked by a string of car bombings, killing at least 50 people , most of them children, and scores wounded.

The US military raids on the Iraqi cities drew worldwide rebukes.