45 Iraqi Policemen Killed in Attacks on Baquba Police Stations

Iraqi resistance attacks and clashes killed 45 people in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Tuesday, a hospital morgue official said. Guerrillas attacked three police stations and a river bridge in the city, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, and fought gunbattles with Iraqi police and National Guards.

The attacks came as U.S.-led forces were storming into the resistance stronghold of Falluja, west of Baghdad.

Ahmed Fuad, in charge of the main morgue in Baquba, capital of Diyala province, said 32 people had been wounded, in addition to the 45 bodies he had received.

"We have taken back the labor union building from the resistance and we are regaining control of the city," police Major Mohammed Ghani told reporters.

Fuad said 25 policemen were killed when gunmen attacked the Tahrir and Mafraq police stations in Baquba. Another 20 bodies had come in after a similar attack on a police station in Buhriz, a village just south of Baquba, he said.

Iraqi resistance also attacked a Diyala river bridge on a road linking Baquba with the northeastern towns of Miqdadiya and Khanaqin.

They distributed leaflets warning people in Baquba to stay away from government offices and schools.

--------------------

At least 200 Iraqi soldiers deserted before attack on Fallujah

by Hannah Allam and Tom Lasseter

U.S. military officials said Monday that at least 200 Iraqi troops had deserted their posts in the American-led offensive on Fallujah, illustrating the predicament faced by men who are torn between orders from commanders and outrage from their countrymen. Another 200 Iraqi troops were estimated to be “on leave.”

“Some people were afraid because they received threats,” said Sgt. Abdul Raheem, an Iraqi soldier. “They were afraid of death.”

Prominent Iraqi clerics, including influential Sunni Muslims and top aides to rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr, condemned the Iraqi troops who were serving alongside Americans in Fallujah, the Sunni stronghold 35 miles west of Baghdad. In a statement, they called Iraqi troops “the occupiers’ lash on their fellow countrymen.”

Meanwhile, the insurgent council that has controlled Fallujah for the past six months threatened to behead Iraqi troops who entered the city to “fight their own people.”

Hundreds of Iraqi troops are playing a support role in Fallujah, mainly providing security for areas American forces have cleared.

To bolster Iraqi troops’ morale, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made a surprise visit Monday to the Camp Fallujah base. The men gathered around him and sang and danced to show their allegiance to Iraq and to him. In a rousing speech punctuated by their cheers, Allawi told the young men they were making history.

“The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage just like the people of Samarra, and you need to free them,” Allawi said. “Your job is to arrest the killers, but if you kill them, let it be.”

“May they go to hell!” the soldiers cried.

“To hell they will go,” Allawi answered.

Fallujah isn’t the first battle to elicit mass desertions by Iraqi troops. Hundreds were reported in the August standoff over Najaf, and many troops reportedly deserted the last time U.S. troops entered Fallujah, in April.

Despite the desertions, Iraq’s nascent security forces celebrated two apparent victories Monday. In the flash-point town of Iskandariyah, a deadly zone south of Baghdad, Iraqi police disguised as civilians ambushed a rebel checkpoint and killed 25 insurgents, according to Iraqi government officials.

A Babylon province intelligence officer, who wouldn’t give his name for security reasons, told Knight Ridder that 60 officers stormed the checkpoints and sustained no casualties. The all-Iraqi operation came after a string of large-scale attacks on Iraqi security personnel throughout the country.

“They were criminal, armed terrorists, and we destroyed them all,” the officer said.

The second success was part of the initial push into Fallujah late Sunday night. Men described as elite Iraqi commandos backed by U.S. troops stormed across a bridge and took over Fallujah’s main hospital amid enemy fire, according to a news release from the Iraqi government. Four suspected foreign fighters, including two Moroccans, were seized in the operation just outside the city on the western bank of the Euphrates River.

Just before the battle began, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan addressed the Iraqi troops at Camp Fallujah.

“I swear by God we will fight until the last drop of our blood,” he said.

“When we came to Iraq with the coalition forces, our decision was to build Iraq through its sons. Today is your day, and jihad is for you — not for those rats.”



--------------------

Thirteen US soldiers killed in Iraq


Ten US soldiers have been killed in Falluja with three other US military personnel killed in other parts of Iraq, according to the US military.

About a dozen US troops have been killed so far in the offensive against the Iraqi city of Falluja, US Lieutenant General Thomas Metz said on Tuesday without giving a precise toll.

According to Pentagon figures, some 10 soldiers were also wounded in and around Falluja.

"Friendly casualties are light," Metz said in a video teleconference briefing from Iraq.

The US military reported that two Iraqi soldiers of the interim army had been killed in the attacks on Falluja.

"Enemy casualties, I think, are significantly higher than I expected," Metz added, but declined to provide a number.


Mosul, Baghdad fighting

Three US military personnel were also reported killed in Mosul and Baghdad on Tuesday.

"One Task Force Olympia soldier was killed and a second service member later died of wounds following a mortar attack on a Multi-National Base in Mosul at approximately 100am (0700 GMT) today," a statement said.

"A civilian contractor also wounded in the attack was evacuated to the military hospital in Baghdad," the statement added.

Another US soldier succumbed to his wounds sustained during a firefight with Iraqi fighters in Baghdad, AP reported.

A total of 14 Americans have been killed in the past two days across Iraq - including five in and around Falluja.

The latest US deaths brings to 1140 the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, according to Pentagon figures.


Ramadi fighting

In a separate development, anti-US fighters took control of the centre of the Iraqi city of Ramadi after 24 hours of clashes with US forces, an AFP correspondent has said.

The US military could not immediately be contacted for comment.

US forces withdrew Tuesday around 20pm (1100 GMT) from Ramadi's main streets to their bases east and west of the city, the correspondent said.

Earlier, five US troops were wounded in Ramadi when marines shot at and destroyed two suspected cars killing seven fighters, the US military said Tuesday.

The attack occured in the city on Monday, located 113km west of Baghdad, where US troops have clashed with fighters for weeks, the military said. No other details were available.

Ramadi, and Falluja to the east, is a centre of anti-US fighters waging a 17-month campaign against US-backed interim authorities in Iraq.

--------------------