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Pentagon: Up To 12 Marines Killed

April 6, 2004 / 9:35 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Up to a dozen Marines were reported killed in new fighting in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Reports from the field said dozens of Iraqis attacked a Marine position near the governor's palace in Ramadi, a senior defense official said.

"A significant number" of Marines were killed, and initial reports indicate it may be up to a dozen, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports up to 20 more marines were wounded.

In nearby Fallujah, U.S. Marines drove into the center of the Sunni city in heavy fighting before pulling back before nightfall Tuesday. The assault had been promised after the killings and mutilations of four American civilians there last week.

At least eight Iraqis were killed and 20 wounded in the fighting, hospital officials said.

Later Tuesday, U.S. warplanes fired rockets that destroyed four homes in Fallujah, witnesses said. Rafie al-Issawi, a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, said the bodies of 26 Iraqis were brought in after the strike, and at least 30 came in with injuries.

Rafie al-Issawi, a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital, said the hospital received the bodies of 26 dead along with 30 wounded soon after. He said their wounds suggested they had been in the destroyed houses.

The deaths bring the total death toll among Iraqis in Fallujah on Tuesday to 34, including eight during heavy street fighting during the day.

After a weekend of countrywide violence sparked primarily by followers of the fiery Muqtada al-Sadr, fighting again was reported in Nasiriyah, Kut, Amarah and northern Baghdad. There were 15 Iraqis killed in Nasiriyah and another 15 dead in Amarah, coalition military officials said.

Al-Sadr left his fortress-like complex in Kufa and moved to an office near a sacred shrine in the holy city of Najaf, vowing to shed his own blood to oust the American occupation.

Al-Sadr draws most of his support from a small segment of Iraq's majority Shiite population. He is backed mainly by the poor and primarily those who live in the Sadr City neighborhood of east Baghdad.

He has a history of confrontations with the U.S.-led coalition, which Monday disclosed what it said was a murder warrant for his arrest on charges he took part in the killing of a moderate Shiite rival shortly after the American invasion a year go.

U.S. officials have suggested they will move soon to arrest al-Sadr, who is surrounded by his al-Mahdi Army militia. Members of the militia were behind a wave of violence Sunday in which eight American soldiers and dozens of Iraqis were killed.

"I have pledged not to allow a drop of blood to be shed except my own," al-Sadr said in a statement. "I'm prepared to have my own blood shed for what is holy to me."

In other developments:

President Bush acknowledged the U.S. faces "tough work" in Iraq. The president reiterated that the U.S. won't "cut and run from the people who long for freedom." He reaffirmed the administration's plan to turn over power to an interim government at the end of June.

A senior officer in Washington said U.S. military commanders have begun studying ways they might increase troops in Iraq should violence spread. Generals believe they have enough forces to handle the attacks, including the Shiite militia violence, but want to know what is available if the situation gets worse, said the officer, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity.

A Ukrainian solider was killed in clash in Iraqi city of Kut, the Defense Ministry said.

Fighting overnight between followers of radical Shiite cleric and British troops killed 15 Iraqis, coalition spokesman says.

Gunmen attacked Italian forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Tuesday. Fifteen Iraqis died and 12 Italians were wounded, the Italian Ministry of Defense said.

Security problems and the approaching June 30th transition in Iraq will top the agenda when British Prime Minister Tony Blair meets with President Bush next week, The New York Times reports.

The U.S. Army is conducting medical tests on a handful of soldiers who complained of illnesses after reported exposure to depleted uranium — a material used for tank armor and armor-piercing weapons.

Iraq is worse off now, after the U.S.-led invasion, than it was under Saddam Hussein, Hans Blix told a Danish newspaper Tuesday. He cited "the many casualties during the war and the many people who still die" in terror attacks.

In a series of U.S. television interviews Tuesday, L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, conceded not all was going smoothly as the coalition approached a June 30 handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis.

"We have problems, there's no hiding that. But basically Iraq is on track to realize the kind of Iraq that Iraqis want and Americans want, which is a democratic Iraq," Bremer said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

But he said continuing disturbances would not affect the American handover schedule.

"June 30 is the date. We're going to stick to it," he said.

After violence this weekend, Bremer canceled a trip to Washington this week, a Senate aide said Monday. No reason was given, the aide said.

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