Al-Kaabi was shot dead at the council building in Sadr City, an impoverished quarter housing two million people, or about 40% of Baghdad's population. The shooting gave fresh ammunition to critics of the U.S. presence in Iraq among the Shiite community.U.S. troops, many of them deployed on the rooftop of the council, reinforced their presence there yesterday with a fire engine and armed members of the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps wearing military fatigues.
"The incident is still under investigation" said a U.S. officer who did not wish to be named, "I cannot give details before the end of the investigation, but the incident revolved around the fact that he wanted to park." A member of the council said al-Kaabi had tried to enter the complex with his car early Sunday, but decided to leave when U.S. troops refused to allow him in for security reasons.After the council chairman received a telephone call from a U.S. officer granting him permission to park his car inside, he drove back but was again denied access by U.S. soldiers at the gate.
A U.S. military official said that U.S. jet fighters also bombed a house apparently used as a base for anti-coalition attacks. "We used F-16s to precision bomb the house," said Captain Dan Froehlich, a spokesman for the 82nd Airborne`s Third Brigade.He said the house near Mahmudiyah, south of the capital, was used to plan attacks on coalition forces and to stash weapons.
The bombing conducted Monday evening came a few days after a convoy came under attack in the area - presumably from the six people found inside the house - where weapons, including several rocket-propelled grenade launchers, were seized.
About 15 miles south of Baghdad, in Latifiyah, a U.S. army base was hit by gunfire and two Iraqis were killed when soldiers fired back, said police and witnesses. The soldiers came out of the base after the firefight and took the dead and wounded inside, they said, adding hat it was not clear if the casualties were the gunmen who actually opened fire. Meanwhile, U.S. jet fighters have bombed a house south of Baghdad used for anti-coalition attacks after troops captured its six occupants.
Two policemen and four prisoners were wounded when a bomb blew up outside a Baghdad courthouse in the eastern Rassafah district yesterday. The explosion occurred at 1:15 pm. The bomb was placed right in front of the courthouse. The blast was heard when two Humvees and a bus transporting 16 detainees to Abu Gharib prison west of Baghdad were about to leave the courthouse and the prisoners were being loaded into the bus, said police officer Ali Mahal. The escorting U.S. troops opened fire. The force of the blast tore out windows and left a crater in the ground outside.
In another incident, four Iraqis were killed and nine others wounded when a roadside bomb ripped apart a car in the southern city of Basra yesterday, Iraqi police said, while the top U.S. ground commander, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, announced the capture of 20 persons. There were conflicting accounts of the blast and casualty figures, but the British forces controlling the area admitted a surge of violence over the past week.
British military spokesman Major Charlie Mayo said the bomb blew up prematurely at 8:30 am, killing the man planting it and wounding his three accomplices. Two civilians passing in a car were also wounded in the blast, he said, but added it was possible more people were killed or injured. A second blast occurred in downtown Basra about midday, but it was not immediately known if there were further casualties.
Also in Basra, four Iraqis died, two of them policemen, and nine people, including school children, were hurt, when a bomb exploded in the town center. Witnesses said thata crowd of hundreds clashed with police and shots were fired, leaving two people wounded before the mob proceeded to loot and burn the city hall and a police station.
Despite the rising tide of violence, U.S. commanders again insisted they had enough troops to carry out their mission in Iraq effectively."Our field commanders say they do not need more troops," General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN. "The troops on the ground say they have what it takes to do the job.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told CBS television that if at any moment military commanders indicated that they need more American troops, he would certainly recommend to the President that the number of troops should be increased, "but the advice we are getting is just the opposite."
