US-led forces battled Sunni Muslim guerrillas and a spreading Shia uprising yesterday, as Iraqi anger was inflamed by a blast in the grounds of a mosque that witnesses said killed 25 people.
In the last three days 35 American and allied soldiers and at least 200 Iraqis have been killed in the heaviest fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein nearly a year ago. The spiralling two-front war, with new flashpoints flaring across the country as backers of radical Shia cleric Sheikh Moqtada al-Sadr take up arms, is calling into question US plans to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30th.
Yesterday some countries with soldiers in Iraq signalled that the situation was growing serious. Ukrainian troops pulled out of the eastern city of Kut after clashes and regrouped at a base camp. Japan said its troops would suspend reconstruction work in Samawa, in the south, because of security concerns.
Battles raged between US marines and guerrillas in the Sunni towns of Falluja and Ramadi west of Baghdad, while US-led forces fought Shia militants in the capital, Kut and the central Iraq cities of Kerbala and Najaf. A US military spokesman said there were five marine "casualties" in Falluja yesterday, but it was not clear if any had been killed.
Witnesses in the town said US marines attacked a mosque compound, killing at least 25 people. The US military said two 500 lb (227-kg) bombs were dropped and rockets were fired at insurgents hiding behind the mosque's outer wall, but did not know if there were any casualties.
"When you start using a religious location for military purposes, it loses its protected status. The marines called in additional support, dropped two . . . precision-guided bombs and took out the outer wall of the mosque without seeming to harm . . . the actual mosque structure itself," US Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt told CNN.
In nearby Ramadi, mosques broadcast calls for a holy war as blasts echoed across the town and black smoke billowed into the sky. Residents crouched in houses as masked insurgents and marines fought in small alleyways. Women and children cried.
Twelve marines were killed on Tuesday in a seven-hour battle in Ramadi - one of the costliest single losses for US forces since the war began last March.
The US military launched a major operation this week to secure Ramadi and Falluja, where four US private security guards were killed last week and their bodies set ablaze and mutilated by a jubilant crowd of Iraqis.
Yesterday in Baghdad, a US soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade, bringing to 443 the number of US troops killed in action in Iraq.
In a mainly Sunni Baghdad district, clashes with US troops began after nightfall. Residents said gunfire and explosions sounded through Adhamiya for the second time in three days.
A US helicopter landed north of Baghdad after being hit by gunfire. The US army said there were no casualties. An aide to Sheikh al-Sadr told a news conference that some US soldiers had been captured. There was no independent confirmation of his statement.