Bush: US resolve on Iraq 'unshakeable'

Despite the deaths of 12 US Marines in Iraq yesterday, President Bush declared that the US resolve in Iraq remained "unshakable".

At least 12 US marines died and 66 Iraqis were injured as insurgents and rebellious Shiites mounted a string of deadly attacks on US-led coalition forces in the south of Iraq and in the Sunni Triangle.

The clashes capped three days of violence – the worst fighting since Saddam Hussein was toppled last year. At least 136 Iraqis and 30 coalition troops have been killed since Sunday.

“Our resolve is firm… and we will prevail,” his official spokesman said at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

In Fallujah, US warplanes fired rockets that destroyed four homes, witnesses said. The bodies of 26 Iraqis were brought in after the strike, and at least 30 people came in with injuries, said Rafie al-Issawi, a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital.

US authorities also launched a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia after a series of weekend uprisings in Baghdad and cities and towns to the south.

Fighting in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Kut, Karbala and Amarah and in a northern Baghdad neighbourhood killed 32 Iraqis and an American yesterday, coalition military officials said. More gunfire rang out in the Baghdad’s Sadr City late that night.

In Nasiriyah, 15 Iraqis were killed and 35 wounded in clashes Tuesday between militiamen and Italian troops, coalition spokeswoman Paola Della Casa told the Italian news agency Apcom.

Iraqi attackers used civilians as human shields, and a woman and two children were among the dead, Della Casa said. Eleven Italians troops were slightly wounded, she said.

In Kut, militiamen attacked an armoured personnel carrier carrying Ukrainian soldiers, killing one and wounding five others, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry said. Two Iraqis were killed in the fight.

Fighting overnight in Amarah between al-Sadr’s followers and British troops killed 15 Iraqis and wounded eight, said coalition spokesman Wun Hornbyckle.

The US military brought out a deadly AC-130 gunship to lay down a barrage of fire against the guerrillas in Fallujah. US Marines Major Briandon McGolwan said several helicopters were hit by small arms fire, but none were downed. He said the US military had detained 14 suspected insurgents since Monday.

The crackdown on al-Sadr, who has drawn backing from young and impoverished Shiites with rousing sermons demanding a US withdrawal, sent his black-garbed militiamen against coalition troops.

Fearing a US move to arrest him, al-Sadr yesterday left a fortress-like mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, where he had been holed up for days, his aides said.

Al-Sadr issued a statement saying he was ready to die to oust the Americans. He urged his followers to resist foreign forces.

Al-Sadr moved to his main office in Najaf, in an alley near the city’s holiest shrine, according to a top aide, Sheik Qays al-Khaz’ali. Hundreds of militiamen were protecting the office.

The US-led coalition had announced an Iraqi murder warrant against al-Sadr on Monday and suggested it would move to capture him soon.

Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached the June 30 handover, a date he said was inviolable.

“We have problems, there’s no hiding that. But basically Iraq is on track to realise the kind of Iraq that Iraqis want and Americans want, which is a democratic Iraq,” he told the US network ABC television.