- BAGHDAD -- At least 16 people
were killed as violence flared across Iraq yesterday.
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- Fierce fighting raged in the flashpoint city of Fallujah,
west of Baghdad, as heavily armed insurgents confronted American marines.
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- Eight died in the three-hour battle, among them an Iraqi
cameraman working for the American television network ABC News and a US
marine.
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- The marine's death brought the number of US troops killed
in action since the start of the war to 400.
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- Near Tikrit, the former stronghold of Saddam loyalists
north of the capital, three insurgents and four members of the Iraqi civil
defence corps were killed in clashes.
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- Earlier, an Iraqi translator working for Time magazine
died from gunshot wounds in hospital. Omar Hasim Kamal was shot four times
as he drove to work in Baghdad. It appears he was ambushed because he worked
for a western media organisation.
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- At least 15 people have been killed in the past fortnight
as terrorists have extended their targets to include translators, journalists,
businessmen and Christian missionaries.
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- Previously, US-led coalition troops and the Iraqi security
forces had borne the brunt of the violence, but drive-by shootings at "softer"
targets have now become routine.
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- The security crisis has forced many westerners into fortified
enclaves.
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- Hassan Fattah, editor of Iraq Today, an English-language
newspaper, said: "The terrorists want nothing but bad news from Iraq
and attacking journalists guarantees a 'bad news' story."
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- US commanders have given warning that they expect a concerted
terrorist campaign ahead of the transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government
on June 30.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/27/
wirq27.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/27/ixworld.html
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