Up to 12 marines killed as US faces twin uprisings

12.00pm UPDATE

BAGHDAD - As many as 12 US marines were killed in a Sunni Muslim hotbed of support for Saddam Hussein, as occupation troops struggled elsewhere on Wednesday to quell an uprising by Shi'ites who once celebrated Saddam's overthrow.

The marines' position was attacked by dozens of Iraqis near the governor's palace in the city of Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad in an area US forces call the Sunni Triangle, a US defence official said late on Tuesday.

The losses were among the heaviest inflicted on US forces in any clash on the ground since the Iraq war began a year ago.

"There may have been as many as a dozen Marine deaths," the official said, adding that "a significant number" of Iraqis also died. It was not clear exactly who mounted the attack.

The twin uprisings by Sunni and Shi'ite fighters, united only in hostility to the US-led occupation, raised fears at home that the United States faces a Vietnam-style quagmire.

Followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fought pitched battles with foreign troops in Shi'ite Muslim strongholds on Tuesday in Baghdad and southern Iraq and vowed to pursue a rebellion that has claimed more than 130 lives in three days.

The clashes with Shi'ites are a new front for US-led forces trying to pacify Iraq ahead of a June 30 handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi government.

The Ramadi incident brings the number of US military combat deaths to around 30 since Sunday.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, in London for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said thousands more foreign troops might be needed to maintain order.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said if commanders on the ground asked for more troops they would be sent.

A US opinion poll as President George W Bush campaigns for November re-election showed support for his handling of Iraq had fallen to a new low of 40 per cent -- down 19 points since mid-January. It found 44 per cent wanted US troops withdrawn.

Bush vowed the campaign by Sadr's supporters would not derail Washington's plans for Iraq: "We will pass sovereignty on June 30," Bush told a campaign rally in El Dorado, Arkansas. "We're not going to be intimidated by thugs and assassins."

The youthful cleric said he would fight on regardless:

"This insurrection shows that the Iraqi people are not satisfied with the occupation and they will not accept oppression," Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf.

A US soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad on Tuesday, and a Ukrainian soldier and a Bulgarian civilian truck driver were killed in Shi'ite regions of southern Iraq.

In Nassiriya, gun battles erupted between Italian troops and pro-Sadr militiamen who had taken control of key bridges. A spokeswoman for the occupation authority in the area said 15 Iraqis had been killed, mostly militiamen. The Italian military said 12 soldiers had been wounded.

Fighting between militiamen and security forces in Amara, in the British army area of responsibility, have killed 15 Iraqis in the last 48 hours, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.

The Bulgarian military base in Kerbala came under heavy fire and Spanish and Polish troops also clashed with Shi'ite militia.

Iraq's Health Ministry said 66 Iraqis had been killed and 317 wounded in clashes in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad since Sunday.

Qays al-Khazali, one of Sadr's aides, compared the uprising to a 1991 Shi'ite rebellion eventually crushed by Saddam.

"The uprising will continue and we will not negotiate unless they fulfil our demands, which are a withdrawal from populated areas and the release of prisoners," he told a news conference.

A US official said on Monday an Iraqi judge had issued an arrest warrant for Sadr months ago over the murder of a Shi'ite cleric last year. Sadr's group has denied involvement.

Sadr appealed to all Iraqis, whatever their religion, to join together to expel occupying troops.

Sadr appealed to all Iraqis, whatever their religion, to join together to expel occupying troops.

Armoured columns of Marines entered the centre of the Sunni city of Falluja on Tuesday after the killing of four US private security guards there last week. Hospital doctors said at least two civilians had been killed in fighting.

Rumsfeld told reporters US troops had cordoned off the city. "A number of people have resisted and have been killed," he said.

US Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, a key backer of John Kerry's bid to unseat Bush in November, said Iraq had become "George Bush's Vietnam". Iraq's US governor Paul Bremer said: "There is really nothing in common with Vietnam."

Since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam last year, 429 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq, excluding the latest deaths in Ramadi.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq