"Iraqi police suffer sustained attacks"-- Al Jazeera

[TexasLawyer]

Iraqi police suffer sustained attacks


Friday 11 February 2005, 0:17 Makka Time, 21:17 GMT


At least 10 Iraqi policemen have been killed and up to 65 more wounded in fierce battles with anti-US fighters south of Baghdad, police sources said. Intense and deadly skirmishes near the town of Salman Pak, about 65km southeast of Baghdad, continued for several hours on Thursday.

At one point, Salman Pak's main police station was taken over by fighters before the US military sent in helicopter gunships to attack the building. Police sources said at least 65 officers had been wounded and that 20 of the fighters had been killed. The fighting was so fierce that police reinforcements were unable to reach many of the wounded or recover the dead left lying in the road.

Just hours earlier, unknown assailants shot nine bullets into a representative of Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraqi Shia. But Shaikh Amar al-Hilali survived the assassination attempt, an aide to the Ayat Allah said on Thursday. Sistani's official in the east Baghdad district of Al-Ubaidi, was "hit nine times in the chest and arms", said the aide. "His driver was also wounded and they are both in hospital in Baghdad." The shaikh was said to be in a stable condition.

In other attacks on Thursday, eight Iraqis were killed. A car bomb in central Baghdad left three civilians dead and a US army spokesman said the blast might have been aimed at a US convoy that passed by shortly before. He said there were no US casualties but the explosion scattered tangled metal and wreckage across Tahrir Square, a major intersection lined with shops and market stalls.


<there's more, unfortunately>

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ED1D12A2-A175-49DB-A55E-C8D0EE36FCE1.htm

[Wright Patman]

1. Pentagon calls them 'anti-Iraq' forces

But none of the puppet police forces have proven to be effective, including any "language police" we might have trained.