Americans advance on Fallujah

BAGHDAD -- US troops attacked a mosque compound as they advanced deeper into the resistance stronghold of Fallujah yesterday, and witnesses said dozens of Iraqis were killed.

The Shi'ite Muslim uprising led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr intensified and spread across Iraq, and his Army of the Mahdi consolidated its hold on key cities.Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a military spokesman, said US-led forces would hunt down Sadr's militia. "We will attack to destroy the Mahdi Army," Kimmitt said. "Those offensive operations will be deliberate, they will be precise, and they will be powerful, and they will succeed."

But Sadr, whose legions of well-organized cleric deputies and thousands of armed fighters have won enormous clout since they raised arms against occupying soldiers on Sunday, warned US authorities to immediately surrender power to Iraqis.

"Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers," Sadr said in a prepared statement.

The heaviest fighting raged in Ramadi and Fallujah. US military officials said they had taken back control of Ramadi, where 12 Marines were killed during an attack on Tuesday.

In Fallujah, on the fourth day of an operation to root out insurgents, Marines called in air strikes on a mosque compound that they said guerrillas were using as an operating base to attack Americans, killing one fighter, the military said. But witnesses said a bomb and missile fired on the Abdel-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque during a six-hour firefight killed dozens, the Associated Press reported.

The Marines said US aircraft dropped a 500-pound bomb on a wall surrounding the compound and launched a Hellfire missile at the base of its minaret. The attack was carried out only when it was clear there were insurgent fighters inside the compound, Kimmitt said in an interview with CNN, adding that the minaret was not damaged.

He said the mosque -- like other religious structures -- was protected under the Geneva Conventions but the insurgents nullified that status by attacking from the compound.

Marines said they controlled one-fourth of Fallujah, a city of 200,000 people, mostly Sunni Muslims. Insurgents have blown up a major highway overpass leading to the city.

Mosques throughout Baghdad have collected blood and humanitarian relief supplies to truck or carry into Fallujah, whose fighters have won broad popular sympathy among Iraqis.

Protests against the US military action in Fallujah turned violent in the northern city of Kirkuk, and subsequent fighting with US troops killed eight Iraqis.

In the past week, 46 US troops have been killed. Since Sunday alone, when Sadr's followers rose up, 35 Americans, two other coalition soldiers, and at least 230 Iraqis have died in the nationwide violence, the AP reported. Fifteen of the American casualties were in Fallujah and Ramadi, part of the so-called Sunni Triangle.

Sadr's fighters appeared to put American allies on the run across southern Iraq, challenging some of the smaller international contingents in the US-led coalition that have been patrolling regions that had enjoyed relative peace.

Sadr's fighters have effectively kept Polish troops from securing Karbala, locked Spanish troops out of Najaf, and driven Ukrainian troops out of Kut.

Bulgaria demanded backup from the coalition authority for its 450 soldiers stationed in Karbala, who have come under repeated attack. In December, the Bulgarians were forced to withdraw from one base in the city center after it was destroyed by a truck bomb. Mahdi Army fighters controlled the streets of the holy city of Najaf for a third day. Spanish troops remained outside the town.

Sunday is Arba'in, the last day of a 40-day observance that is Shi'ism's holiest holiday. Najaf and Karbala, the sect's two holiest cities, have also been the most effectively controlled by Sadr -- in part because of the reluctance of the US-led coalition to enter the cities during the holiday period.

In Nasiriyah, where Sadr's fighters had seized the strategic bridges over the Euphrates River on Tuesday, Mahdi Army leaders said they would stop fighting if Italian soldiers in charge of the city pulled back and turned over security work to the Iraqi police.

The arrangement signals just how much Sadr's stature -- and negotiating power -- has grown since last week, when US-led occupation officials shut down his anti-American newspaper and arrested one of his deputies in connection with last year's murder of Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a moderate Shi'ite cleric. Both US actions touched off a round of protests that swelled into the current unrest.

Nasiriyah's police have a tenuous place in the city's security structure. They are weaker than both the Shi'ite militias omnipresent in the city and the Italian soldiers, who have kept a low profile. Last month, four police were killed in a shootout with Shi'ite militiamen, and Italian troops had to be called in. A truce that would put Iraqi police, rather than Italian soldiers, in charge of Nasiriyah's streets would effectively ensconce religious militias as the city's real security brokers.

Fighting spread north of Baghdad for the first time since the weekend, when Mahdi militiamen fought US troops in Baqubah, forcing down a helicopter after attacking it with machine guns.

Baghdad braced for further violence, as Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite Mahdi fighters hit the streets in neighborhoods like Aadhamiya and Sadr City. Security sources have warned of planned guerrilla activity and terrorist attacks tomorrow -- the one-year anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's government.

Iraq's most senior, and moderate, cleric attacked the US crackdown on Shi'ite fighters, but also renewed a plea for calm.

"We condemn the way the occupying forces are dealing with current events, just as we condemn aggression against public and private property which leads to unrest and stops Iraqi officials from carrying out their duties in the service of the people," a statement issued by the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's office in Najaf said.

Sistani's position is of critical importance. US officials have downplayed the importance of the Mahdi Army attacks, saying that while violent, the militia has narrow support among Shi'ites. Sistani, on the other hand, is considered the ultimate arbiter for Iraq's Shi'ites, who make up about two-thirds of the population.

"We call for the matter to be dealt with wisdom and patience and in peaceful ways, abstaining from any provocative steps which will lead to more chaos and bloodshed," the statement said.

Thanassis Cambanis can be reached at tcambanis@globe.com.