With F-15 fighter jets and Apache helicopter gunships providing cover, U.S. and Iraqi troops Tuesday battled hundreds of Sunni Arab insurgents firing from apartment buildings and houses in downtown Baghdad in one of the fiercest clashes in the capital in recent memory.
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“It was the most intense combat I have ever seen,” said Maj. Jesse Pearson, operations officer for the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, Stryker Brigade, on his third tour in Iraq. “We were in a fight for 11 straight hours.”
Along Haifa Street, a desolate, mostly Sunni Arab enclave of residential buildings and shops, more than 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops descended early Tuesday to retake the insurgent stronghold. The larger goal was to reassert the authority of the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, weakened by sectarian and political divides and a failure to stem Iraq’s violent slide.
The troops encountered strong resistance as the well-organized insurgents appeared determined to protect their turf or fight their way out, surprising U.S. soldiers who fought in the battle. By evening, as many as 50 insurgents had been killed, Iraqi officials said, while 21 others, including several foreign fighters, were captured, but only after the use of massive U.S. firepower and technology. No American or Iraqi troops were killed, U.S. military officials said.
With President Bush scheduled to unveil his new strategy for Iraq on Wednesday, the battle on Haifa Street points to the nature of the conflict U.S. forces could face in months ahead.
U.S. generals and the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki view the taming of Baghdad as vital to the stability of Iraq. But the capital has become polarized along sectarian lines, with neighborhoods held by either Sunni insurgents or Shiite militias.
“All sides are getting more desperate to enforce their will, and increasingly they are capable of doing that,” said Sgt. Israel Schaeffer, who is on his second tour in Iraq. “It’s a pivotal point in the conflict.”
“This is obviously their home turf,” Pearson said. “They didn’t like the idea of government forces entering their territory.”
On Saturday, al-Maliki announced a new Baghdad security plan in which Iraqi forces, with U.S. assistance, will lead the effort to expel militant fighters from neighborhoods. Al-Maliki and other Shiite leaders view Sunni insurgents as the root of the violence.
In a statement, the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party described the 50 killed as “innocent citizens.” It asserted that Sunnis on Haifa Street were “under siege” by Shiite militias backed by the Iraqi army.
The fighting in the area began four days ago, when Iraqi soldiers killed 30 insurgents after uncovering what was described as an unauthorized checkpoint, according to a Defense Ministry spokesman. Pearson said Iraqi army commanders asked for U.S. assistance after insurgents killed several Iraqi soldiers two days ago.
At 3.30 a.m. Tuesday, about 400 U.S. troops from the Stryker Brigade rolled toward Haifa Street, meeting up with Iraqi army units along the way.
They arrived about 5.30 a.m. In the predawn darkness, the joint forces took control of the buildings surrounding Tallil Square, a key target.
“We showed up in their living room for breakfast,” Pearson said. About 7 a.m., the trouble began. “As soon as the sun came up, the insurgents began shooting,” he said.
Also Tuesday, a plane crashed north of Baghdad while trying to land in heavy fog on a flight from Turkey, and officials said 34 people died. Most were Turkish construction workers, The Associated Press reported.
The cause of the crash near Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital, was unclear. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said reports indicated the aircraft went down because of bad weather.
Al-Maliki said Tuesday that the U.S. ambassador had asked him to delay the execution of Saddam Hussein for 10 days to two weeks.
Al-Maliki, speaking in an interview with Al-Arabiya television, said he refused the request from Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy to Baghdad, because “we did not want to keep a door open for trouble. We did not want the families of the victims to go out and demonstrate.”