By Sameer N. Yacoub
The Associated Press, 11 July 2003.
U.S. soldiers withdrew Friday from a police station in this tense western Iraqi town after Iraqi officers complained that the American presence put them at risk, the head of the town's police force told The Associated Press.
Col. Jalal Sabri said the Americans left the station Friday morning. The U.S. military would not confirm his account.
Police in the town said they were willing to work with the Americans, but did not want them using the station as a base, fearing it would make the Iraqi officers the target of pro-Saddam insurgents.
"We feel more comfortable because of this withdrawal. We can solve the problems here better than the Americans and communicate better with the people," Sabri said. "We have told the Americans many times that we have the capability. We asked them to give us a chance and see our work. If they don't like how we perform, they can come back."
Before dawn Friday, insurgents fired two mortar rounds into the U.S. base in the troubled western city of Ramadi. Capt. Michael Calvert, public affairs officer for the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, said there were no injuries or damage to the base, housed in a former palace of Saddam Hussein. It was the seventh attack on the base in the last 10 days.
Meanwhile, several Iraqi civilians - including a young Iraqi girl - were injured after getting caught in the crossfire of skirmishes between U.S. soldiers and insurgents, the U.S. military said Friday.
One Iraqi was shot in the neck and another in the abdomen when troops opened fire after a rocket-propelled grenade attack late Thursday on a military convoy on a road leading to Baghdad International Airport. The wounded Iraqis were both taken to a nearby hospital. Their condition was not known. The road to the airport is a frequent site of attacks on U.S. troops.
Also Thursday, a young Iraqi girl sustained shrapnel wounds during a night-time firefight between United States forces of the 4th Infantry Division and suspected militants near the city of Balad, 55 miles north of the capital, the military said. The girl was in stable condition and being treated at an Army hospital on the massive Sustainer air base near Balad.
An American soldier was shot and killed near the city of Mahmudiyah, 15 miles south of Baghdad, on Wednesday night.
Another soldier was killed and one wounded Wednesday in a rocket-propelled grenade assault on a five-vehicle convoy near Baqouba, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Bill MacDonald of the Army's 4th Infantry Division.
In the city of Ramadi, 60 miles west of the capital, three separate overnight mortar attacks targeted U.S. servicemen, but there were no reports of casualties, the military said.
Since President Bush declared major combat operations had ended on May 1, at least 31 U.S. soldiers have been killed by hostile fire and 46 others have died in accidents and other non-hostile circumstances, a total of 77.
Several dozen Iraqi police, most wearing new uniforms provided by the U.S. military, marched on the mayor's office Thursday in Fallujah saying they would quit their posts if the American soldiers continued to use their station as a base.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, had said Thursday that American forces would not leave the police station. He said that if the Iraqis follow through with their threat, "we'll find some more" police to patrol the city.
The fears of the Fallujah police are not without foundation.
Fallujah has seen several deadly attacks on American and Iraqi forces since U.S. troops killed 20 protesters in late April.
Insurgents fired two rocket-propelled grenades at American troops in the city Wednesday, causing no casualties. And an explosion Saturday at a police graduation ceremony in Ramadi, 28 miles west of Fallujah, killed seven U.S.-trained recruits.
On June 24, protesters in the southern city of Majar al-Kabir stormed a police station after British troops fired on protesters. Four British soldiers died in the attack on the station, and two others were killed in a clash near the mayor's office.
Fallujah residents said they were pleased with the Americans decision, but would have preferred a complete withdrawal from their city.
"We are happy they left the station, but we will be happier if they leave the entire town." said Ziad Khalaf, a shopkeeper near the police station. "Nobody wants them here because they are occupiers and infidels."
Attacks by pro-Saddam Hussein insurgents in recent weeks have threatened to drag Iraq's American and British occupiers into a military and political quagmire. The U.S. military insists the resistance does not amount to a full-fledged guerrilla war, and say they have no evidence it is being coordinated on a nationwide level.
Most of the attacks have taken place in an area north and west of Baghdad called the "Sunni Triangle," a region known as a stronghold of Saddam supporters, although many residents deny that the former dictator, also a Sunni Muslim, still has followers among them. Fallujah, Ramadi and Baqouba are all within the triangle.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, the U.S. military handed out hundreds of combat infantry badges to soldiers who took part in the fight for Baghdad, the first time since the Korean War that the medals have been presented to American reservists.
The medals were given out to soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, based in Florida, during a ceremony at Baghdad stadium. Some 330 combat infantry badges and 38 combat medical badges were awarded during the ceremony.
Citation: Sameer N. Yacoub. "U.S. Soldiers Withdraw From Iraq Station," The Associated Press, 11 July 2003.
Original URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2895479,00.html