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Firefight rages in Baghdad as new Saddam video surfaces
2007-01-09
A fierce firefight raged in central Baghdad between the Iraqi army and Sunni insurgents, as a grisly new video of Saddam Hussein taken shortly after his hanging appeared on the Internet. The intense firefight came Tuesday as US President George W. Bush prepares to unveil his new strategy for Iraq on Wednesday. A barrage of mortar and machine-gun fire reverberated across central Baghdad as security forces launched a crackdown on Sunni insurgents in the notorious Haifa Street, less than two kilometres (just over a mile) from the heavily fortified Green Zone -- the seat of Iraq's government and the US embassy. US fighter jets and military helicopters hovered above the area where the battle was centered, witnesses and the US military said. Skirmishes began in the early hours of Tuesday and by daylight had grown into a heated firefight, forcing residents to steer clear of key roads. The US military said Iraqi soldiers with support from coalition forces "are conducting targeted raids to capture multiple targets, disrupt insurgent activity and restore Iraqi security forces' control of north Haifa Street." "This area has been subject to insurgent activity which has repeatedly disrupted Iraqi security force operation in central Baghdad," Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl said in the statement. He said the joint forces were being subjected during the operation to small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. "The targeted raids have successfully resulted in three arrests this morning. The operation is currently ongoing," Bleichwehl said. Haifa Street is a Sunni bastion where top officials of the former regime used to live but which is now refuge to insurgents who regularly fire on Iraqi and US troops. In a separate statement the Iraqi defence ministry said its forces had arrested 11 militants, including seven Syrians from Haifa Street. The statement did not clarify when the arrests were made. It said two of the four others arrested were Al-Qaeda militants picked up from Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad. The ministry added that eight hostages were also set free in Haifa Street. The latest bout of fighting came as a new grisly video showing the body of ousted president Saddam Hussein shortly after his hanging appeared on the Internet Tuesday. The footage shows his head sharply twisted to one side and a gaping bloody wound to his neck. The 27-second footage, apparently taken with a cellphone camera, is expected to trigger fresh outrage over the manner in which the former dictator was hanged and his body treated immediately after the execution. The footage begins by showing a body on a stretcher covered in a white shroud and the camera moving upwards. As the camera reaches the head, the shroud is pulled aside to reveal the bearded face of Saddam twisted sharply to his right with a wound just below his jaw on the left side. A few red blotches are also seen on Saddam's left cheek. Voices can be heard, apparently of those shooting the film secretly. As the shroud is pulled back one voice is heard saying, "Hurry up, hurry up. I will count one to four." Then another voice is heard saying, "Abu Ali, you take care of this." The latest video follows an earlier one posted on the Internet soon after the December 30 hanging, also shot secretly on a cellphone camera, which showed Saddam at the gallows being taunted by guards moments before the trapdoor opens. In that video a member of the execution chamber can be heard chanting "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada!" -- a reference to Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric and bitter opponent of Saddam. "Go to hell," Saddam seems to respond, although the sound is not clear before he plunges through the metal trapdoor as he recites the Muslim prayer of the dead. The unofficial footage has triggered outrage among Iraq's Sunni community and further soured their relations with the Shiite majority. Some international leaders have said the taunting of Saddam moments before his death has made him a martyr. Meanwhile, Bush was expected to announce on Wednesday the deployment of additional troops to Iraq and mainly to stabilise Baghdad as part of his new strategy. He was also expected to declare a slew of economic and political measures but with strict benchmarks to be adhered to by the war-ravaged country's leaders.
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