The U.S. military did not immediately confirm the attack in Mosul and
more details weren't immediately available.
An oil pipeline also was reported on fire early Saturday about 10 miles
north of Saddam Hussein (news
- web
sites)'s hometown of Tikrit, an area that has seen widespread
opposition to the occupation. Witnesses said they suspected sabotage
because the blaze was preceded by an explosion during the night.
The reports followed a clash on Friday U.S. troops and Iraqi rioters
when a dispute over a marketplace in Abu Ghraib exploded into
anti-American fury. Two Iraqis were killed, and 17 others and two U.S.
soldiers were reported wounded at the marketplace clashes outside Baghdad,
as Iraqi rioters waved portraits of Saddam Hussein and shouted "Allahu
Akbar!" � "God is great!"
A bomb also exploded Friday morning near an 82nd Airborne Division
patrol outside Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, killing one soldier and
wounding four others, the U.S. military reported.
In Fallujah, also west of Baghdad and a center of the anti-U.S.
resistance, an explosion and fire struck the office of the mayor, who has
cooperated with the U.S. occupation. In a melee that followed, one Iraqi
was killed. Later Friday, U.S. troops came under attack at the same spot.
Three or four American soldiers were wounded in the northern city of
Mosul late Friday when assailants threw a grenade at them from a speeding
car, Iraqi police said. The U.S. military confirmed an attack at the same
time but declined to give details.
An Islamic clergymen's association, meanwhile, issued a statement for
Friday prayer congregations denouncing as sinful any Muslim's support for
the Americans. "Supporting them is apostasy," it said, "... a betrayal of
religion."
Rumors spread through Baghdad that bombings or other resistance action
would strike the capital Saturday. A street leaflet attributed to the
ousted Baathists declared it would be the "Day of Resistance," and also
called for a three-day general strike to begin Saturday.
As a result, U.S. officials urged Americans in the Iraqi capital to
"maintain a high level of vigilance."
The Australian government, which has contributed 2,000 troops to the
U.S.-led coaltion in Iraq (news
- web
sites), also warned that a Baghdad hotel popular with foreign
journalists and aid workers could be targeted for an attack.
"The Australian government has received credible reports of imminent
terrorist threats to the district of the al Hamra Hotel in central
Baghdad," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned in its latest
travel advisory late Friday. "These reports indicate a particular threat
over the next two weeks beginning on November 1."
The fresh violence flared as U.S. forces contended with an upsurge in
the 6-month-old campaign of ambushes and bombings by the shadowy
resistance forces, who now strike almost three dozen times a day, mostly
in central Iraq.
The U.S. command is grappling with unanswered questions of who is
behind the harassing attacks, how coordinated they are, and how to bring
them under control. American officials variously blame die-hard Saddam
loyalists, foreign and local Islamic extremists, and even released
criminals, and some suggest Saddam himself may be plotting some attacks.
Before dawn on Friday, U.S. troops sealed off Saddam's birthplace
village of Uja, about 95 miles north of Baghdad, where relatives of Saddam
and adherents of his Baath Party have long been suspected of maintaining
contacts with the ousted leader.
The 4th Infantry Division troops ringed the village with razor wire,
set up checkpoints and began issuing identity cards to villagers to
control their movements.
The bloody, on-and-off clashes in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad,
broke out Friday morning when U.S. troops tried to clear market stalls
from a main road, Iraqi police reported.
The reason for the U.S. action and the sequence of events remained
unclear late Friday. But at some early point someone tossed a grenade at
U.S. soldiers, slightly wounding two, Army 1st Lt. Joseph Harrison said at
the scene, and mortar rounds fell on a nearby police station.
Young Iraqis threw stones at soldiers and tanks, set tires ablaze, and
brandished Saddam portraits, shouting religious slogans.
Gunfire broke out sporadically, but then the Iraqis retired for midday
prayers in nearby mosques. When they returned to the market, gunfire
erupted again as more U.S. armored vehicles moved in. Ten explosions and
machine-gun fire were heard, and American helicopters hovered overhead.
In late afternoon, the bodies of two Iraqi men � identified by friends
as Mohammed Auweid, 45, and Hamid Abdullah, 41 � were carried from the
sealed-off area.
"God damn America!" shouted friend Ali Hussein, who said the men were
passing by when the Americans opened fire on rock-throwers. "U.S. soldiers
are the real terrorists, not us!" he said.
Nearby Shula Hospital received 17 wounded civilians, said the
hospital's Dr. Imad Ali. He said three were in critical condition. The
Americans said they arrested two Iraqis found carrying a mortar firing
tube.
Some 40 miles to the west, an explosion rocked the center of Fallujah
at midday, and thick, black smoke billowed from the mayor's office. The
town hall had been the target of previous attacks as well, since its
leadership began cooperating with the American military last April.
Firemen extinguished the flames, and no casualties were reported, but
authorities said one Iraqi was killed and one wounded when residents
converged on the scene outraged that their district was again the target
of an attack because it was associated with the U.S. occupation. Police
shot and killed the man during the argument, said civil defense officer
Ahmed Khalil reported.
