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| Rebels kill 23 Iraqi police, free inmates |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/23/2004 |
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Guerrillas overwhelmed an Iraqi police station west of Baghdad on Feb. 14, meeting little resistance as they went room to room shooting police in a bold, well-organized assault that killed 23 people and freed dozens of prisoners, officials said. The fierce, well-coordinated daylight attack in Fallujah unprecedented in its scale raised questions whether Iraqi police and defense forces are ready to battle insurgents as the U.S. military pulls back from the fight in advance of the November U.S. presidential election. It also underscored the tenacity of a resistance that continues despite the Dec. 13 arrest of Saddam Hussein. The attack came at the end of a bloody week in which about 100 people were killed in suicide bombings at a police station in Iskandariyah and an army recruiting center in Baghdad. Those attacks and Saturday's Fallujah raid suggest a campaign by insurgents to strike at key institutions of the U.S.-backed Iraqi administration. Iraqi police stations have frequently been targeted by insurgents before, but not by so many gunmen in such a well-coordinated assault. Before the attack, the gunmen set up checkpoints and blocked the road leading to the police station, but residents did not notify police, Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Kadhum Ibrahim said in Baghdad. Nearby storeowners were warned not to open Saturday morning, one shopkeeper in Fallujah said. The battle left 17 policemen, two civilians and four attackers dead. At least 37 people nearly all policemen were wounded. Two wounded attackers were captured, but the rest escaped. Police in the Fallujah station complained they had only small arms nothing larger than an automatic rifle in the face of dozens of fighters armed with heavy machine guns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades. No U.S. forces took part in the battle. |
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