- KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) -
U.S. troops fought street-to-street with paramilitaries in the central
Iraqi city of Kerbala on Saturday in a fierce assault aimed at protecting
supply lines of U.S. forces moving into Baghdad.
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- U.S. officers said the American troops had killed about
75 Fedayeen paramilitaries loyal to President Saddam Hussein and said six
or seven U.S. soldiers had been wounded in the battle. Others had slight
burns but continued to fight.
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- The Iraqi fighters took up positions on rooftops in the
narrow streets of this Shi'ite shrine city, firing rocket propelled grenades
and assault rifles. U.S. planes unleashed laser-guided bombs, artillery
and heavy arms fire.
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- "It's freaky in there. Lots of bullets flying around.
It's pretty scary," said one young U.S. soldier who was evacuated
after being hit by fragments from a hand grenade.
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- The fighting raged all Saturday afternoon as the U.S.
forces progressed slowly toward the city's center. It flared again in the
evening. Helicopters continued buzzing overhead looking for Iraqi fighters
and the U.S. soldiers dug in for the night.
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- "They gave us a pretty good fight. It wasn't that
well organized -- they were spread out all over the place -- but they really
went at it," another soldier said.
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- American forces attacked Kerbala as advance U.S. forces
pushed into Baghdad, 110 km (70 miles) to the north, on the 17th day of
a war to overthrow Saddam.
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- It followed a similar U.S. sweep two days earlier through
Najaf, another holy Shi'ite Muslim city in central Iraq, to root out paramilitaries
and other fighters loyal to Saddam who could threaten long U.S. supply
lines stretching up from the south.
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- Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Holden said U.S. forces could
not make a sustained push into Baghdad until the cities around capital
were secured.
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- "It would have to be raids and destruction missions,
but it couldn't be long-term effective as long as Kerbala and other towns
can serve as a Fedayeen base to attack our forces," said Holden, a
battalion commander of the 101st Airborne.
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- "TOUGH FIGHT"
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- Troops from the "Screaming Eagles" 101st Airborne
Division landed in helicopters on the western edge of Kerbala, moving in
beside a tank battalion with Apache attack helicopters overhead.
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- Iraqis offered tough resistance from one building complex,
keeping OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters at bay with sustained
fire whenever they closed in.
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- Fedayeen also knocked out a Bradley armored vehicle with
a rocket propelled grenade. This correspondent saw about six wounded U.S.
soldiers.
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- "There's been a tough fight. It is tough in there.
And it's hot," said Sergeant Major Patrick Boykin of 101st Airborne
Division. "They know the terrain, they've been waiting and they're
determined...but so are we."
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- Reuters correspondent Andrew Gray, within sight of the
golden-domed mosques in the city center, heard several loud explosions
and the heavy pounding of artillery.
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- Air Force officers said fighter planes had hit a Republican
Guards facility, the city headquarters of Saddam's ruling Baath Party,
and a munitions depot with 2,000 pound bombs.
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- Three huge plumes of smoke rose above the city and one
of the bombs appeared to spark a series of secondary explosions.
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- Fighters popped out of doorways, alleyways and from rooftops
to fire at the invaders. People in the city ran scrambled from house to
house.
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- A U.S. officer told Gray the strike against Kerbala came
from four different directions.
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- LONG SUPPLY LINES
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- "We are here to reduce the resistance in the town
(and) to allow things to return to normal in Kerbala," said Major
Eric Wick, second in command of the 2nd Battalion of the 70th Armored Regiment.
He said the mission would help secure supply lines and allow humanitarian
deliveries to Kerbala.
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- U.S. sources said they believed hundreds of Fedayeen
paramilitaries could be based in Kerbala, threatening U.S. lines stretching
hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Kuwait.
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- Najaf and Kerbala, home to the holiest Shi'ite shrines
in Iraq, rose up against Baghdad after Iraqi troops were repulsed from
Kuwait by U.S.-led forces in 1991. Forces loyal to Saddam put down the
uprising within weeks.
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- One U.S. officer said Najaf residents were welcoming
the U.S. forces and offering to help them. In Kerbala, one child shouted
"Welcome" in English and another flashed a V-victory sign. Another
offered the soldiers a bag of nuts.
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- U.S. 70th Armored Regiment forces said they found 1,000
mortar rounds in a hospital on Kerbala's northern outskirts and came across
an abandoned air defense system.
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