Civilian convoys ambushed

By Monte Morin
Los Angeles Times

HUSSEIN MALLA / AP Witnesses take a tire from a wrecked vehicle after gunmen ambushed a civilian convoy on a Baghdad highway yesterday. Cheering bystanders later doused two of the bullet-riddled vehicles with gasoline and set them ablaze, according to Iraqi police and witnesses. It was the second of two deadly attacks on civilian convoys yesterday in the area.

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The attacks, the latest in a spate of ambushes targeting foreigners, came as a tentative cease-fire between occupation forces and fighters loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to unravel.

U.S. troops and the cleric's militiamen reportedly engaged in a major firefight in the city of Kufa after the troops arrived to secure an embattled police station. The military said today two U.S. soldiers were killed.

Also today, the military said a roadside bomb exploded beside an Army vehicle south of Baghdad, killing one 1st Armored Division soldier and wounding two others.

	PAULINE LUBENS / SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS Fighters with the al-Mahdi Army stare at the quiet streets of Kufa, Iraq, yesterday. Many of the city's businesses were closed in anticipation of fighting between followers of anti-U.S. Muqtada al-Sadr and U.S. troops. Indeed there were clashes yesterday in Kufa and Najaf, despite a truce declared late last week.

No further details about the attack yesterday were released.

The casualties increased to at least 806 the number of U.S. service members who have died since military operations began in Iraq.

The more violent of the two ambushes on civilian convoys yesterday occurred at dusk near a highway overpass in north Baghdad.

Attackers fired machine guns at a convoy of up to four British civilian vehicles, sending the vehicles swerving into highway dividers and causing two to smash head-on into each other.

Accounts of police and witnesses varied widely, but police said at least one Iraqi security guard and an Iraqi bystander were killed.

One witness said that, after the attack, men in civilian dress and bulletproof vests sprang from the vehicles and fired weapons at an attacker. The men then commandeered a BMW and escaped, the witness said.

Other witnesses also said youths carrying cans of gasoline set two of the vehicles on fire, sending columns of black smoke over the Shiite neighborhood of Al Jawadayn. Video images showed young men dancing in the roadway as the vehicles burned.

When Iraqi police arrived, officers engaged in a brief gun battle with crowd members who were dragging a man in a protective vest from the driver's seat of one of the vehicles, witnesses said. Police said at least six people were injured in the confrontation.

A spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office said that there was no truth to reports that several people had been taken hostage, according to The Associated Press.

The other ambush occurred around 2:30 p.m., when gunmen fired on a group of four-wheel-drive vehicles carrying civilian contractors headed for Baghdad International Airport, according to the U.S. Army. It said one passenger was killed and another was injured.

The two attacks were the latest in a series of assaults apparently aimed at driving out those who provide support for occupation forces.

In many cases, insurgents appear to have identified their victims by the body and vehicle armor that was intended to protect them. The heavy armor is seen as a symbol of the coalition force and its contractors.

The attacks coincided with the threatened collapse of a truce between al-Sadr's followers and coalition troops. Three days after al-Sadr pledged to pull back from the holy city of Najaf if the U.S. military did the same, the sound of gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades shook nearby Kufa.

The Kufa fighting killed two U.S. soldiers, a military spokeswoman said. One was killed when his patrol was ambushed with small-arms fire; the other was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade attack on his tank, the spokeswoman said. Both attacks occurred last night, she said.

Shiite militiamen accused the Americans of firing near Kufa's main mosque, damaging its outer wall. CNN quoted soldiers as saying it was the most intense fighting in the area in six weeks.

Al-Sadr's followers also fired rocket-propelled grenades at a patrol of coalition soldiers in Najaf, from positions in the city's cemetery, according to Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military spokesman.

Coalition forces have said they will not conduct "offensive" actions in light of the cease-fire agreement but said they will fire back if attacked.

The difference between an offensive strike and a defensive response is not always clear, however.

Military commanders acknowledged that one tactic used in fighting al-Sadr's followers has been to purposely draw fire from them while patrolling, so that the enemy gunmen can be spotted and killed.

While Kimmitt said it was possible that some of al-Sadr's forces had not yet received word of the cease-fire, he said coalition troops would exercise their "right of self-defense." Sporadic fighting during a period of cease-fire was also the case in Fallujah, which was surrounded by U.S. Marines for weeks.

Kimmitt said it was too early yesterday to tell if the peace deal with al-Sadr had collapsed. "It could take a few days before the true cease-fire that he offered holds. We will have to wait and see and respond as and when necessary."

Material from Reuters is included in this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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