NBC News: Coalition headquarters attacked......updated [View All]

[RedEarth]

NBC News and news services
Updated: 4:34 p.m. ET April 06, 2004U.S. military officials tell NBC News that attacks against coalition forces and facilities have increased Tuesday.


The officials report that early Tuesday enemy forces attacked the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters at Kut, southeast of Baghdad. That attack was followed later by an attack on the coalition authority headquarters at Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Officials tell NBC it was not immediately clear whether the attacks were coordinated.

In Fallujah, military officials report that a U.S. attack helicopter killed at least a dozen enemy suspects who had fired on the helicopter from a large open-bed truck. The helicopter returned fire, destroying the truck.

The officials also report that one attacker hiding in a mosque fired a rocket-propelled grenade at U.S. Marines in Fallujah. The Marines returned fire, killing the assailant.

Pentagon officials said the enemy in Fallujah has suffered "significant casualties" and several suspects identified only as "high-value targets" have been taken into custody.

Battles on two fronts
Earlier Tuesday, Iraqi Sunni insurgents and Shiites loyal to a militant cleric challenged U.S.-led forces on two fronts, mounting battles across four southern Iraqi cities and taking on U.S. Marines in Fallujah, where several columns backed by tanks met heavy fire as they tried to move in.

At least 20 coalition troops, 18 of them American, and 100 Iraqis have been killed during three days of clashes, the worst fighting in Iraq since the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4667742/