U.S. Troops in Najaf Come Under Mortar Fire

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- Militiamen pounded a U.S. base with mortars Monday in the most intense attacks yet on U.S. troops in Najaf, where the Americans have been holding back their full firepower to avoid enflaming the anger of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority. Another American soldier was killed in Baghdad.

American troops returned fire, and their commander estimated that 20 Iraqi fighters were killed, based on bodies and "watching young men fall after being hit."

The fighting came as Thomas Hamill, a truck driver from Mississippi who escaped from his Iraqi kidnappers after three weeks in captivity, flew to Germany on Monday for a reunion with his wife.

At a Najaf hospital, one slain Iraqi policeman and 16 wounded civilians were brought in, including a woman. Hospital officials said they were hit by American fire.

After a volley of mortar fire on the Najaf base in the afternoon, U.S. troops and militiamen traded fire for several hours. Tanks joined the fight, and Apache attack helicopters circled overhead, though they did not open fire. Clashes eased but small arms fire and occasional mortar blasts could be heard throughout the afternoon.

In Fallujah, the U.S. military was moving to install a new commander for the Iraqi force taking control of the city, bringing in a general thought to have opposed Saddam Hussein to replace another general who some allege took part in Saddam-era repression. Maj. Gen. Mohammed Latif, a former military intelligence officer, is likely to take command of the Fallujah Brigade, a senior U.S. official said.

In Baghdad, insurgents Monday opened fire on U.S. soldiers guarding a weapons cache that was discovered the night before, killing one soldier and injuring two, the U.S. military said.

Outside the U.S. base in Najaf, a huge plume of smoke could be seen rising from a building where American soldiers said insurgents had been hiding. U.S. tank and machine gun fire left the building mostly destroyed.

Before dawn Monday, militiamen shelled the troops with some 20 mortars, hitting in and around the former Spanish base that U.S. troops moved into a week ago. There were no casualties.

The U.S. military has deployed at the base and outside Najaf to crack down on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Lt. Col. Pat White said about 20 fighters were killed, judging from how many bodies were spotted or seen falling.

At a Najaf hospital, doctors said all their wounded were civilians. Al-Sadr militiamen usually wear black uniforms. Razzaq Hussein, 22, a construction worker, was wounded all over his body from shrapnel from a shell he said was fired by the Americans.

The mortar fire came from the area of nearby Kufa, and the gun attack came from three different directions, said Maj. Todd Walsh, executive officer of the 2nd Battalion 37th Regiment, 1st Armored Division. "We don't know if the fighting just escalated or whether it was a concerted probe," Walsh said.

In Fallujah, the new Iraqi brigade, made up of former soldiers from Saddam's army, took up further positions in the cordon around the city, replacing Marines who were pulling back to form an outer cordon. The Iraqi brigade now controls a ring around the southern half of Fallujah and is due to begin patrols inside soon.

On Monday, Iraqi volunteers wearing surgical masks and gloves disinterred bodies that had been buried in houses and backyards for reburial in a football field that has been turned into a graveyard.

Maj. Gen. Latif will likely replace Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a former member of Saddam's Republican Guard, as head of the Fallujah Brigade, a senior U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials have acknowledged they did not fully vet the leaders and members of the new brigade to see how close their ties were to Saddam's regime -- a sign of the military's eagerness to find an "Iraqi solution" to the monthlong siege.

U.S. officials say the Fallujah Brigade will crack down on hard-core guerrillas in the city -- though the force itself will likely include some of the gunmen who last month were involved in fighting against the Marines. Since Friday, masked and armed insurgents have moved freely in the city's streets, sometimes standing alongside Iraqi policemen.

Meanwhile, Hamill was headed to Germany, where he will have a checkup at a U.S. military hospital and see his wife, Kellie.

Hamill, a 43-year-old truck driver from Macon, Mississippi working for the Halliburton Corp. subsidiary KBR, was abducted by gunmen on April 9 after his convoy was attacked outside Baghdad. His fate had been unknown since he appeared in a videotape released the next day by his captors, who threatened to kill him within 12 hours unless the siege of Fallujah was lifted.

On Sunday, Hamill reappeared in the town of Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad, when he ran up to a patrol from the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, part of the New York National Guard, and identified himself. He then led the soldiers to the house from which he had just escaped, and two Iraqis with an automatic weapon were arrested.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)