Shiites Join Sunni Fighters In Al-Azamiya

Fighters from Mahdi Army of Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr have been spotted with their unmistakable green headbands and flags battling the occupiers shoulder to shoulder with fellow countrymen in the predominantly Sunni district, residents told IslamOnline.net.

The battles raged on from Monday night, April 5, till the small hours of Tuesday, April 6, they added.

"I saw members of Mahdi Army disembark from a vehicle late Monday here in Al-Azamiya," one eyewitness said, requesting anonymity.

"At around 10:00 p.m. (07:00 GMT), I heard five simultaneous explosions and saw columns of black smoke billowing into the night sky over a military camp of the U.S. occupation troops.

"I believe that it came under a mortar attack to pull their legs into where they met tough resistance," added the witness.

He said more reinforcements backed by tanks and all-terrain Humvees as well as U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces came to the district.

"I then heard the sound of exploding mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades and intense gunfire, which raged on till early Tuesday, as U.S. helicopters buzzed overhead, flying at low altitude and shaking houses," added the resident.

He said the battles left one U.S. Humvee destroyed with all inside killed.

Another resident told IOL that three fighters, including a Mahdi Army member, were killed in the fierce battles.

"I saw the bodies of the three martyrs lying in an alley with a green headband roped to the head of one of them," he recalled.

Images of Sadr have been also emblazoned across a wall in Al-Azamiya in an unprecedented move by the Sunnis.

Already burdened with tough resistance in the so-called Sunni triangle, which includes the two flashpoint towns of Fallujah and Ramadi, U.S.-led forces are facing now pitched battles with Iraq’s Shiites, which killed some 100 Iraqis and wounded around 400 others.

In Fallujah, at least 67 civilians were killed and up to 100 injured as the U.S. troops pressed Wednesday with a grisly offensive that started at dawn Monday.

The grinding battles have also killed at least 40 U.S. occupation troops over the past three days, taking to 624 the number of U.S. troops killed since the start of the war last year.