IRAQ: Insurgents have taken over much of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and used it to launch attacks against US forces while terrorising the population with public beheadings.
A huge bomb killed five US marines yesterday and showered body parts on to rooftops, fuelling suspicion that new armour-piercing technology was being developed and tested in Ramadi.
US troops recovered the remains and withdrew to their base outside the Arab Sunni stronghold, leaving masked gunmen to erect checkpoints and carry out what residents said was the latest of many executions.
A man described as an Egyptian spy was beheaded and his body dumped on a busy shopping street. Warned by the killers to leave it for five days, shoppers pretended not to notice the figure in the brown robe, its head resting on its back.
Four days ago, two suspected Shia militiamen were beheaded in the marketplace in full view of traders, said a senior police officer who asked not to be identified. Two boys played football with one of the heads, he added.
Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, became an insurgent citadel soon after Saddam Hussein's regime fell two years ago. US and Iraqi forces claimed to have quelled it in February during Operation River Blitz, a sweep through restive towns and cities in Anbar province.
Falluja, 40 miles east of Ramadi, has been largely quiet since a major offensive last November pushed much of the civilian population as well as rebels out of the city. US forces tightly control movement to and from Falluja, but in other towns and cities in Anbar, the guerrillas returned after the US withdrew and swept aside weak or non-existent Iraqi forces.
In Ramadi it was clear yesterday that nobody was fully in charge. US troops guarded two bridges outside the city and every five hours or so entered the town in armoured Humvees. Once the convoy passed, people ventured outdoors again, including men in scarves and masks who wielded knives, assault rifles and rocket launchers.
Civil and tribal leaders, including Sheikh Harith al-Dari, a leading spokesman for Sunni Arabs, had scheduled a meeting in the main mosque to discuss political developments in Baghdad. But insurgents cancelled, saying informal contacts with US and Iraqi officials had achieved nothing.
Residents said they were frightened of the insurgents but most dreaded a US-led offensive similar to that which flattened Falluja. They said the rebels were Iraqi Sunnis, not foreign Islamist radicals. The Sunni minority, privileged under Saddam, resents the US presence and the political ascendance of Shias and Kurds.
A US sailor was shot dead in the city on Wednesday, hours before the five marines were killed. Witnesses said the bomb detonated at 2am yesterday just after a convoy crossed a bridge.
Residents said that in reprisal for their losses US troops fired grenades at a minibus as it crossed the bridge at 6am yesterday. Hospital staff said eight girls and women died and a Jordanian man was injured. - (Guardian service)