The
Battle That Left No Bodies
By Jack Fairweather
The Telegraph, UK
03 December, 2003
Wrecked
cars and bullet-riddled shopfronts testified to the battle. But in the
streets of Samarra yesterday there was little evidence of what the Americans
described as the biggest engagement since the end of the Iraqi war.
Burned out cars following the fighting in Samarra
US forces insisted they had killed 54 Iraqi attackers after two of their
armoured convoys came under co-ordinated attack while delivering new
currency to local banks on Sunday. But local people and a hospital doctor
reported only eight dead, who they insisted were mainly civilians, including
an Iranian pilgrim.
It was impossible
to reconcile the two versions of the battle. The US military acknowledged
that the death toll was estimated - rather than confirmed - on the debriefings
of soldiers and no bodies had been collected.
The firefight began
at 1.20pm on Sunday when the convoys entered the city from separate
locations carrying money for a currency exchange programme. Following
a previous withdrawal agreement by US forces, they were the first coalition
vehicles to enter the city centre in over a week.
Following recent
attacks, the convoy's jeeps and humvees were escorted by tanks and armoured
personnel carriers.
Their caution proved
well-founded. One convoy was hit by a roadside bomb shortly after entering
the town, Iraqi witnesses said, although it went on to the bank.
At 1.30pm, soldiers
began delivering three billion Iraqi dinars (more than £100,000)
of new currency to the Rafidain bank in the town centre. A cordon of
tanks and soldiers on rooftops were on alert.
As both convoys
prepared to leave, the Fedayeen, a militia formed by Saddam Hussein,
attacked with rocket-propelled grenades, mortar and small arms fire
from other rooftops.
At the second bank
on the edge of the commercial district, insurgents leapt from cover
firing rockets, a witness said. A spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division
said: "American soldiers were struck by heavy and sustained fire
from separate locations. US soldiers returned fire and the attackers
were overwhelmed."
The attacks lasted
less than 20 minutes, with troops rapidly supported by four Apache attack
helicopters. The US military said that two teams of up to 30 fedayeen
were involved.
Brigadier General
Mark Kimmitt, a US military spokesman, said one person was detained.
Asked about the
bodies of the 54 militants said to have been killed, he said: "I
would suspect that the enemy would have carried them away and brought
them back to where their initial base was."
Though the attack
was repulsed, US officers said it marked a new stage in the insurgency,
showing greater levels of co-ordination.
Captain Andy Deponai,
whose tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), said: "Up
to now you've seen a progression. Initially, it was hit and run, single
RPG shots on patrols, then they started doing volley fire, multiple
RPG ambushes, and now this is the first well co-ordinated one.
"Here it seems
they had the training to stand and fight."
On the streets of
Samarra yesterday shoppers were out in force and the US military had
retreated again. At the Rafidain bank, the firefight had left several
wrecked cars, a smattering of bullet holes in shopfronts and one building
damaged by small arms fire.
Down a narrow side
alley facing the bank stood three wrecked cars, two struck by tank rounds,
the third dotted with bullet holes. There was no obvious sign that anyone
had been in the vehicles.
Omar Mehdi, a 27-year-old
teacher who lives in the street, said he had parked the car there 30
minutes before the attack.
His father forlornly
held up the burnt cinders of a copy of the Koran that had been on the
dashboard of the car. "No one was killed in the car, thank God,"
he said.
Outside the mosque
that stands at one end of the street, a tank round had landed on a Mitsubishi
car. According to Iraqis an Iranian pilgrim and two other people were
killed.
"We heard the
shooting and everyone began running, there was a terrible traffic jam
and people were desperately trying to get out of their cars to escape,"
said one local shopkeeper.
At the scene of
the second attack, a clothes shop two hundred yards away had been burnt
out, although no one was injured. Two nearby buildings had also been
targeted by American tank gunners.
The attacks had
left an ugly mood in the town, where locals were unanimous in condemning
indiscriminate firing by the Americans.
"They are the
most malicious people. They are not educated, they are barbarians. They
said they would bring us democracy but they scare women and children.
We will resist them to the depth of our soul," said Rashid Jasem,
38, a hardware shop owner, whose store was peppered with bullet holes.
Iraqi witnesses
claimed that tanks fired a round at workers from a drug factory as they
left work at 2.00pm. One woman was killed and 18 injured. A crater from
the shell and a pool of blood remained nearby.
They said four cars
were also hit in the parking area of the hospital and a nearby mosque
was shelled, killing two. Dr Faleh Hassan Asamara, on duty at the hospital,
said: "The Americans have done a lot of shooting but I don't think
the number of dead they claimed were killed."