Originally published October 22, 2007 at 12:00 AM | Page modified October 22, 2007 at 2:01 AM
Sadr City raid kills 49 insurgents, U.S. says
U.S.-led forces reported killing 49 insurgents Sunday during predawn clashes with renegade Shiite militia members. The fighting was the...
McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — U.S.-led forces reported killing 49 insurgents Sunday during predawn clashes with renegade Shiite militia members.
The fighting was the deadliest in recent months and further stoked furor among Iraqis over the heavy toll the war is taking on civilians.
The U.S. military claimed no civilians were killed or injured during the raid, while Iraqi police said at least 13 were dead, including three children and a woman. Iraqi authorities said 69 people were injured.
Television news broadcast images of caskets and grieving families in the streets of Sadr City.
The gunfights erupted after armored military vehicles, backed by helicopter gunners, arrived on the fringes of Sadr City to conduct a door-to-door sweep for a rogue militia cell leader the United States accuses of masterminding the kidnapping of coalition soldiers and other foreign nationals in May and last November.
The target of the manhunt was neither captured nor killed, the military said.
"It's the biggest raid in two months," said Karem Hellal, 45, who was out on the street when the soldiers descended on his neighborhood.
In August, the U.S. military reported killing 32 suspected insurgents during airstrikes in Sadr City.
Sirens wailed as ambulances carried the injured to the hospital. Doctors treated the injured, including children, at Imam Ali hospital, the biggest in Sadr City.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expressed his concerns about the raid during a meeting with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, who leads the coalition forces in Iraq.
In a statement released by the prime minister's office, Maliki promised an investigation. He called for better coordination of military offenses with Iraqi troops to "avoid such regrettable incidents," the statement said.
Emotions are still raw over the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians by employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm hired by the U.S. State Department to protect diplomats.
![]()
The military said it had returned fire from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in at least three separate gunfights in several Sadr City neighborhoods.
Sunday's raid lasted more than three hours, witnesses said, in a predominantly poor area on the fringes of Sadr City, a stronghold of Shiite militias mostly loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Sadr has called on militias loyal to him to refrain from attacks. In response, U.S. military officials have said they, too, would show restraint.
But Maj. Winfield Danielson, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, said, "We will not show the same restraint against those criminals who dishonor this pledge by attacking security forces and Iraqi citizens."
U.S. officials declined to name the target of Sunday's sweep, who they said has sought to carry out high-profile kidnappings and has ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force.
In another development, the U.S. military announced Sunday that Abu Ali al-Baghdadi, leader of the Ramadi-based Army of Truth, and a voice of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, was arrested Oct. 12 in a raid at a relative's house 15 miles northwest of Ramadi.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

PNW Magazine | Easy As Pie
A little friendly competition between professional pie-baker Kate McDermott and The Seatttle Times' Kathleen Triesch Saul is handled with great taste.
nwautos
Local riders say they've seen a surge in scooter interest in recent years, mostly from people wanting another commuting option. Seattle now ranks as o...
Post a comment
nwjobs
Post a comment
Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
Do you suffer from "sitting disease"?
Post a comment
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Tugboat sinks at Seattle waterfront pier
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Woman stabbed by stranger in North Seattle
- Snow piles up on Cascade slopes
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Illegal workers quietly let go
374 - Climate change speeds up since 1997 Kyoto accord
210 - Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
171 - Metro won't cut bus service after all
156 - New Husky recruit: Enes Kanter
98 - Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle
95 - Tattoos at Mill Creek Church pierce skin, soul
83 - Middleton says Huskies "plan on scoring at least 50 points'' Saturday
82 - Jerry Brewer: Seahawks can't lean on the Hutch Crutch now
74 - Seattle woman charged with knife attack on boyfriend's ex
66
- Sprouts, raw fish on attorney's 'do not eat' list
- Tattoos at Mill Creek church pierce skin, soul
- Food-safety lawyer's wish: Put me out of business
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Architects, chefs find 'kid' within to build Gingerbread Village
- Rediscovering Moab, 'the most beautiful place on Earth'
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Taste | The Great Pie Bake-off pits friends and fruit





