U.S. Brands Sadr An ‘Outlaw’, Attacks Fallujah

Seven U.S. soldiers were also killed and two dozen wounded Sunday night, April 4, as the worst fighting between the U.S. occupation forces and the country’s Shiite majority since the start of the invasion dragged on after U.S. overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer designated Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr as an “outlaw”.

The U.S. occupation troops sealed off Fallujah’s entrances in a pre-dawn operation and engaged in a two-hour fierce fighting with Iraqi fighters in Al-Jolan district, Aljazeera satellite channel reported.

All roads leading to this city were also cut off and barricaded with tanks and concertina wire.

Witnesses reported that a number of homes had been hit by what they said were U.S. cluster bombs.

Operation Valiant Resolve was expected to be one of the biggest occupation raids since the ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein a year ago.

The U.S. occupation commanders have vowed a painful response after Iraqis killed four American security contractors in the city on Wednesday, March 31.

An Iraqi mob afterwards dragged their corpses through the streets and hanged two of them from a bridge in scenes that showed the depth of anti-occupation sentiment in the conflictive city.

Fallujah leaders vowed Sunday that they would turn their city into a graveyard for the Americans if they stormed it.

“Every foreigner in Fallujah is a target,” Fallujah’s chief administrator, Fawzi Shaf Al-Aifan, told reporters. “The resistance attacks are legitimate.”

7 U.S. Soldiers Killed

Meanwhile, seven U.S. soldiers were killed and more than two dozen wounded Sunday night, April 4, in fierce clashes with supporters of Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr in Baghdad.

The U.S. occupation soldiers were killed in Baghdad suburb Sadr City, when they tried to seize control of police and public buildings from Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

At least 10 Iraqis were wounded in the clashes and a U.S. military Humvee vehicle lit ablaze.

“Specifically, the militia attempted to occupy and gain control of police stations and government buildings,” the U.S. military said.

“Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces prevented this effort and reestablished security in Baghdad at the cost of seven U.S. soldiers killed and more than two dozen wounded.”

The deaths take to 609 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the U.S. and British troops invaded the country in March 2003, according to an official U.S. tally.

Earlier Sunday, Sadr supporters seized a number of police stations and other public buildings in several Iraqi cities.

They also took over the governor’s office in the British-controlled port city of Basra, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

Dozens of armed Mahdi militiamen stormed the governor’s office in the southern city at dawn Monday, raising a green flag on the roof of the building, he said.

Sadr’s militiamen were seen deployed inside and on the rooftop of the governor’s office alongside policemen who had been inside the building when it was overtaken.

The most blood was spilled in the shrine city of Najaf pitting Sadr supporters against Spanish-led troops. At least 20 people were killed, along with one Salvadoran soldier.

Four people also died in fighting between Sadr militiamen and British soldiers in the southern city of Amara.

In an ominous development that threatens to widen the rift between Iraq’s Shiite majority and the occupation forces, Sadr told his supporters Sunday to “terrorize the enemy” as demonstrations were now pointless.

Sadr declared jihad and urged his followers to take up arms against the occupation, the first time by him to opt for armed resistance since the end of the war to occupy Iraq on April 9.

‘Outlaw’

In a further escalation, U.S. overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer regarded Monday Sadr as an “outlaw” and posed a threat to Iraq’s national security, Aljazeera satellite channel reported.

Sadr observed Monday a second day of sit-in at a Kufa mosque, protesting the U.S. provocations and intolerable practices.

On Sunday, The loudspeakers of Shiite mosques loyal to Sadr had called Sunday morning for his followers to observe a strike.

“Loyal people of Iraq, in protest at the detention of scholars by the occupation forces, the decision has been taken to call a general strike at all government institutions and schools, so we call on you to answer this call," the loudspeakers blared.

The scion of an illustrious religious family, Sadr has clashed several times with U.S. forces since last summer but has intensified his verbal barrage against the U.S.-led occupation since it closed his weekly newspaper on March 28.