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US blames rocket attacks on militias
2008-03-24
The U.S. military blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militia factions on Monday for a spate of rocket attacks that struck the Green Zone and surrounding areas, a day after the overall U.S. death toll in the five-year conflict rose to 4,000. The White House called the grim milestone "a sober moment" and said President Bush spends time every day thinking about those who have lost their lives in battle. "He bears the responsibility for the decisions that he made," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Monday. "He also bears the responsibility to continue to focus on succeeding." The American deaths came Sunday, the same day rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the rockets fired into the Green Zone, also known as the International Zone, were Iranian-made and supplied by the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The U.S. military has accused Iran of arming and funding Shiite extremists to fight American forces in Iraq. Iran denies the allegation. U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip Reeker said two government employees -- an American and a Jordanian -- were seriously wounded and six other people required medical attention after Sunday's volley of rocket attacks. Local hospital and police officials said at least 12 Iraqis were killed and 30 more were wounded in rocket or mortar blasts that apparently fell short after being aimed at the Green Zone from scattered areas of eastern Baghdad. "We have assessed the rockets fired yesterday into the International Zone and those that struck neighborhoods nearby, were the responsibility of Iranian-backed special groups," Smith told The Associated Press in an e-mail. The military uses the term special groups to refer to Shiite extremists who continue attacks despite a cease-fire order by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to his Mahdi Army militia. "The attacks show the indiscriminate violence these groups carry out in Iraq as the major loss of life yesterday was to innocent Iraqi men, women and children," Smith said. The deaths of four U.S. soldiers in a roadside bombing about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad pushed to 4,000 the number of American service members killed as the war enters its sixth year. Another soldier was wounded in the attack, the military said. The AP count of 4,000 deaths is based on U.S. military reports and includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense. "You regret every casualty, every loss," Vice President Dick Cheney said. "The president is the one that has to make that decision to send young men and women into harm's way. It never gets any easier." An American military official in Baghdad said each U.S. death is "equally tragic" and underscored the need to keep up the fight. "There have been some significant gains. However, this enemy is resilient and will not give up, nor will we," military spokesman Navy Lt. Patrick Evans said. "There's still a lot of work to be done." Last year, U.S. military deaths spiked as U.S. troops sought to regain control of Baghdad and surrounding areas. The death toll has seesawed since, with 2007 ending as the deadliest year for American troops at 901 deaths. That was 51 more deaths than 2004, the second deadliest year for U.S. soldiers. Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians also have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion on March 20, 2003, although estimates of a specific figure vary widely because of the difficulty in collecting accurate information. One widely respected tally by Iraq Body Count, which collects figures based mostly on media reports, estimates that 82,349 to 89,867 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives in the conflict. Overall attacks also have decreased against Iraqi civilians but recent weeks have seen several high-profile bombings, highlighting the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups. The heavily fortified Green Zone has frequently come under fire by Shiite and Sunni extremists, but the attacks have tapered off as violence declined over the past year. Sunday's attacks followed a series of clashes last week between U.S. and Iraqi forces and factions of the Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army has come under severe strains in recent weeks as the U.S. and Iraqi forces insist on detaining followers they accuse of belonging to breakaway groups. Al-Sadr's followers have accused the Shiite-dominated government of exploiting the cease-fire to target the cleric's supporters in advance of provincial elections expected this fall. They have demanded the release of supporters rounded up in recent weeks. Leaders of the Sadrist movement called on supporters to protest the arrests by closing their shops and businesses. The call was heeded Monday in at least two predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad. AP Television News video showed a deserted bus stop, shuttered shops and empty streets in normally bustling Amil and Baiyaa. Police said Mahdi Army militiamen have also issued general strike orders in three other areas of southwestern Baghdad and in Mahmoudiya, some 20 miles south of Baghdad. "This civil disobedience may be called for in the rest of Baghdad and maybe in southern provinces if the government does not free our detainees," Sadrist lawmaker Ali al-Mayali said after attending a leadership meeting Monday in the holy city of Najaf. Liwa Smeism, a senior political adviser at al-Sadr's office in Najaf, said the strikes in west Baghdad would continue for up to 48 hours unless the government meets the movement's demands for the release of detainees and a stop to raids against the Sadrists. Also Monday, Iraqi authorities clamped an indefinite nighttime curfew on the Shiite oil port of Basra as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled to the volatile southern city and ordered a new security plan in a bid to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions. The move is a sign of growing concern about security in the nation's oil capital since British forces handed over control of the city last year. Meanwhile, the FBI said it has recovered the remains of two kidnapped U.S. contractors in Iraq. The agency identified the contractors as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo. Withrow worked for JPI Worldwide when he was kidnapped in January 2007. Young worked for Crescent Security Group when he was kidnapped in November 2006. The FBI said the investigation into the kidnappings is ongoing. ___ Associated Press writers Bushra Juhi and Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report, as did AP News Research Center in New York.
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