Woman Killed in U.S. Gunbattle in Baghdad

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 2,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. helicopter fired rockets into a crowded Shiite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad on Thursday, killing a young woman, after the aircraft was fired on, the U.S. command said. The military also said five U.S. troops died in separate attacks.

Thursday's early-morning attack in the vast eastern Baghdad area of Sadr City damaged several houses and cars, and both residents and Shiite politicians condemned the U.S. attack as reckless and provocative.

The U.S. military said the exchange of fire took place at about 1 a.m. as its troops were pursuing a "known terrorist associated with Ansar al-Sunnah," a Sunni militant group that has claimed responsibility for suicide attacks and beheadings.

"As troops were leaving the area in a U.S. military helicopter, men on a nearby rooftop began firing at the aircraft," said military spokesman Sgt. Stacy Simon. "The helicopter returned fire with guns and rockets."

The military had no details on casualties, but Sadr City resident Abdul-Hussein Shanoof said his 20-year-old daughter, Ikhlas Abdul-Hussein, was killed. Shanoof was also wounded, along with another woman and a 2-year-old child.

Footage showed Shanoof's house with a large hole blasted through his roof and rubble scattered inside.

"At night, the aircraft bombed this and that house. One girl died. The aircraft remained bombing us until morning," a Sadr City resident, who declined to identify himself, told AP Television News.

U.S. soldiers detained two unidentified people before the attack inside Sadr City, the power base of radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The area was the scene of fierce clashes between Shiite militiamen and American forces in 2004 through to early 2005.

But American forces have been recently holding up the neighborhood as a model of improving relations between the U.S. military and the Iraqi community.

Transport Minister Salam al-Maliki, an al-Sadr supporter, condemned the U.S. attack and demanded compensation for victims.

"These military operations aim at weakening the supporters of the Sadrist movement, are considered provocative and represent a clear violation against the security situation in the country," al-Maliki told The Associated Press in the southern city of Basra.

A roadside bomb blast killed three U.S. soldiers south of Baghdad on Wednesday, while a fourth soldier died the same day from wounds sustained in a small-arms fire attack in the capital's southwest, the military said. A U.S. Marine was fatally wounded Wednesday during combat near the western city of Fallujah.

The deaths were the first among U.S. personnel since Jan. 28 and took the total of U.S. military fatalities to 2,247 since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In Baghdad, another Sadr supporter, Shiite lawmaker Falah Hassan Shanshal, accused the U.S. of trying to "draw the Sadr movement into a new fight to affect our participation in the political process."

"The occupation is trying to shake the United Iraqi Alliance after their successful election results," said lawmaker Bahaa al-din al-Araji, another al-Sadr supporter and senior member of the alliance, the major Shiite bloc that fared best in the Dec. 15 parliamentary election.

This fascist regime is the world's worst terrorist State bar none. They slaughter, rape, and torture innocent people because their victims have brown skin and worship the "wrong" gods.

Molosovich was convicted for war crime atrocities against humanity and he didn't do half of what this brutal Christofascist Bush regime has done against humanity.

My opinions only and only my opinions.

C'mon! Give fred a break.

Nothing and I mean nothing is as entertaining that watching a certifiable leftist nutjob like fred rice go on and on about "fascist regimes" and "christian terrorism".

It's priceless. Imagine living in the same neighborhood as this guy. Everyone talking about ol' crazy fred and his screaming and yelling all through the night about facism and Bush and Jews.

It's truly great stuff. The guy has found the most absurd stance to take on every issue.

My hat's off to him.

Truly one of IMC's more refined and committed crazies.