[ppi] [ppiindia] Gencatan senjata gagal, 43 orang Irak tewas terbunuh...

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U.S.: Najaf Battle Kills 43 Insurgents=20

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops fought a gunbattle overnight with=20
insurgents near the holy Shiite city of Najaf to the south, killing=20
43 gunmen and destroying an anti-aircraft system belonging to the=20
insurgents, the U.S. military in Baghdad said.=20

The battle, which began around 9:45 p.m. Monday close to Najaf and=20
involved helicopter gunships, lasted several hours, a military=20
spokesman said. No further details were immediately available.=20

The battle came just hours after a workshop in Baghdad, believed to=20
be producing chemical munitions, exploded in flames moments after=20
U.S. troops broke in to search it on Monday. Two American soldiers=20
were killed and five wounded. Jubilant Iraqis swarmed over the=20
Americans' charred Humvees, waving looted machine guns, a bandolier=20
and a helmet.=20

U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt did not say what sort of chemical agents=20
were suspected of being supplied to insurgents from the Baghdad=20
warehouse. After the blast Monday, there was no sign of precautions=20
against chemicals.=20

"Chemical munitions could mean any number of things," including smoke=20
grenades, he said.=20

In Fallujah, U.S. troops came under a heavy insurgent attack Monday,=20
a day after U.S. officials decided to extend a cease-fire rather than=20
launch a full-scale offensive on the city. Eight suspected insurgents=20
and one U.S. Marine were killed.=20

U.S. Marines battled Sunni guerrillas Monday around a mosque in=20
Fallujah's Jolan district, a poor neighborhood where insurgents are=20
concentrated. U.S. helicopter gunships joined the battle, which sent=20
heavy black smoke over the city. Tank fire demolished a minaret from=20
which U.S. officials said gunmen were firing.=20

The U.S. troops met "a real nasty bunch," said Lt. Col. Brennan=20
Byrne, commander of the U.S. military's 1st Battalion, 5th Marine=20
Regiment. But he said the violence would not deter plans to begin=20
joint U.S.-Iraq (news - web sites) patrols in the city.=20

The patrols are a key part of the U.S. effort to establish a=20
semblance of control over Fallujah without a wider Massault, which=20
would revive the bloody warfare seen earlier this month. The United=20
States decided to try the patrols after U.S. President George W. Bush=20
(news - web sites) consulted with his commanders over the weekend,=20
and the cease-fire was extended in part to allow for patrols to be=20
organized.=20

The cause of the Baghdad warehouse blast Monday was unclear. Kimmitt=20
said a large number of explosives were in the building, located in=20
the northern neighborhood of Waziriyah.=20

Asked about reports that the search team included members of the Iraq=20
Survey Group =97 the U.S. team looking for weapons of mass destruction =97
 Kimmitt said only: "The inspection was by a number of coalition=20
forces."=20

He said the owner of the site was "suspected of producing and=20
supplying chemical agents" to Iraqi insurgents, but did not=20
elaborate.=20

The blast leveled the front half of the one-story building and set=20
ablaze four U.S. Humvees parked outside. A U.S. soldier was taken=20
away on a stretcher, her chest and face severely burned. Several=20
Iraqis were pulled from the wreckage, including a woman who wept as=20
she was carried over a man's shoulder to safety.=20

Afterward, dozens of cheering teenagers started to smash the=20
abandoned vehicles. One child climbed on a hood of one of the=20
vehicles and beat it with a stick. A man held up a photo of radical=20
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Iraqis stripped the vehicles of=20
equipment, one carrying a heavy machine gun, another waving a U.S.=20
helmet. One man sported military headphones.=20

"This is for the madman Bush, for the madman Bremer!" said one youth=20
as he waved a rifle, referring to the U.S. president and the top=20
American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer.=20

In the south, outside the holy city of Najaf, Shiite militiamen in=20
cars fired rocket-propelled grenades Monday at a U.S. position,=20
witnesses said. Apache helicopters and U.S. troops opened fire and=20
set the cars ablaze.=20

The clash came as around 200 U.S. troops and military police made=20
their first deployment inside Najaf, moving into a base that Spanish=20
troops are vacating about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from holy shrines at=20
the heart of the city.=20

U.S. commanders have said they will not move against the shrines in=20
order to capture al-Sadr. The Americans say they're aware that doing=20
so could turn the cleric's limited revolt into a wider anti-U.S.=20
uprising by Iraq's Shiite majority.=20

In Baghdad, however, Bremer heightened warnings about the reported=20
stockpiling of weapons in "mosques, shrines and schools" in Najaf =97=20
and his spokesman noted that such actions make the sites fair targets=20
for military action.=20

"The coalition certainly will not tolerate this situation," Bremer=20
said in a statement addressed to residents of Najaf. "The restoration=20
of these holy places to calm places of worship must begin=20
immediately."=20

Bremer's spokesman, Dan Senor, would not elaborate on steps the=20
coalition was ready to take to do so. He noted that in the case of=20
military action, "those places of worship are not protected under the=20
Geneva Convention" if they are used to store weapons.=20

The deaths of the two soldiers in Baghdad and the Marine in Fallujah=20
brought to 114 the number of U.S. troops killed in combat so far this=20
month =97 nearly as many as the 115 Americans killed during the=20
invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) a year ago.=20

The fighting in Fallujah was the latest violence to shake a two-week-
old cease-fire.=20

Still, U.S. officials said they wanted to press forward with a=20
political track, a day after abruptly toning down threats to launch a=20
full-out assault on the city.=20

"We will take the time necessary to see if there is not a political=20
solution," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites)=20
said Monday. "But as you saw today, when our soldiers and our Marines=20
are attacked, they will respond and they will respond with force to=20
protect themselves."=20

U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces are to start patrolling most=20
parts of the city, except the Jolan area, probably on Thursday. There=20
was little guarantee that guerrillas, who U.S. Marines say have not=20
abided by other parts of past negotiated agreements, won't attack the=20
patrols.=20

In Najaf, the Spanish base is pockmarked with shells and shrapnel=20
from earlier attacks. The golden domes of the Shiite shrines at=20
Najaf's center =97 a no-go zone for the Americans =97 were visible from=20
inside the compound. Spanish troops are due to leave within days, and=20
the Americans moved in to ensure al-Sadr militiamen did not overrun=20
the site.=20

The move also gives U.S. forces a foothold in Najaf from which to=20
pressure al-Sadr. He is holed up in the center of the city near the=20
shrines, where his militiamen largely control the streets.=20

The base, which houses Salvadoran and Spanish troops, is in the=20
modern part of Najaf, an urban extension that melds with the=20
neighboring city of Kufa.=20

The U.S. military will take over security duties throughout Najaf=20
province and the neighboring province of Qadisiyah after the=20
withdrawal of Spanish, Dominican and Honduran forces this month, said=20
a Polish spokesman, whose country's forces lead multinational=20
peacekeepers in the area.=20

The extension of U.S. forces would be a major reversal of American=20
efforts to hand security duties in the south to its allies. But the=20
coalition has been frayed by the Spanish-led pullout and the eruption=20
of fighting in the previously more peaceful south.=20



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