- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least
11 Iraqis were killed, six of them shot dead by American troops, as the
United States counted the cost Monday of the deadliest single strike on
its forces since they invaded Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein.
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- Guerrilla resistance is stiffening, in contrast to the
crushing of Iraq's regular army by U.S.-led forces seven months ago --
a rout partly caused by Saddam's delusion that the invasion was only a
feint, his former deputy prime minister was quoted as saying.
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- Eighteen Americans died in guerrilla attacks in Iraq
on Sunday, including 15 soldiers killed when insurgents shot down their
Chinook helicopter near the town of Falluja. A further 21 were wounded.
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- U.S. troops and Humvees guarded the wreckage Monday.
Nearby, gleeful villagers from old men to children celebrated the shooting,
calling it the perfect present to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The "Sunni triangle" region, where the helicopter was downed,
is a hotbed of anti-American anger.
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- "We usually celebrate Ramadan at the end of the
month. Now we are celebrating in the beginning after these infidel Americans
were shot down," said taxi driver Abdullah Hissein.
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- More U.S. helicopters clattered overhead. "Now we
want to take them down as well," the driver said.
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- Earlier, 18 of the wounded soldiers arrived at the U.S.
Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The military said some would be treated at
the nearby Landstuhl Hospital.
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- The triumphal postwar glow in which President Bush taunted
Iraqi militants with the challenge "bring them on" has faded
to a grim determination against a more lethal resistance that has forced
most foreign aid workers to leave.
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- Sunday was the second deadliest day overall for Americans
in Iraq since the war started on March 20, after 28 soldiers were killed
in various attacks on March 23. At least 250 U.S. soldiers have been killed
by hostile fire since the invasion.
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- IRAQIS IN FIRING LINE
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- The number of Iraqis killed since March is in the thousands
and steadily climbing.
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- On Sunday night near Balad, north of Baghdad, U.S. forces
fired on a pickup truck, killing six Iraqis, residents said. U.S. soldiers
said the vehicle was suspected of carrying insurgents and that the incident
was being investigated.
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- Locals said the group had been returning from prayers.
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- The U.S.-led administration said in a statement that
Mustafa Zaidan al-Khaleefa, head of Baghdad's Karkh Neighborhood Council,
was killed Sunday evening while walking near his home. Two gunmen shot
him as they drove by, it said.
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- A mortar attack by unknown assailants in the northern
town of Kirkuk late Sunday killed two people and wounded six.
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- Also on Sunday night, witnesses said an 11-year-old Iraqi
boy was killed near Falluja after he was caught in a firefight between
U.S. troops and insurgents.
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- On Monday in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, an Iraqi was
killed and seven were wounded in a roadside bomb blast.
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- The helicopter attack brought to at least 136 the number
of U.S. soldiers who have died in hostilities in Iraq in the past six months,
since Bush declared an end to major combat.
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- Violence has intensified in the last week. On Oct. 26
guerrillas rocketed a heavily protected Baghdad hotel where Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying, killing a U.S. soldier.
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- Last Monday, 35 people were killed in four suicide attacks
at the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and three
police stations in the capital.
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- Bush has vowed not to retreat from an occupation that
has become even more bloody for U.S. forces than the war.
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- Iraq's former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has told
U.S. interrogators Saddam became convinced early this year he could avoid
war because French and Russian intermediaries assured him they would block
it at the United Nations, the Washington Post quoted U.S. officials as
saying.
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- Aziz said Saddam was so sure of himself he refused to
order an immediate military response when he heard American ground forces
were pouring into Iraq, believing the crossing was some sort of feint.
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- (Additional reporting by Michael Georgy in Baisa, Fadil
Badran in Falluja and Adnan Hadi in Kirkuk)
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