It begins: " the coalition needs to be prepared to take casualties"

["M. Junaid Alam" <junaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

NYTIMES

U.S. Troops Battle Guerrillas in Sunni Muslim Area of Iraq
By ALEX BERENSON

Published: October 2, 2003

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 2 — American troops traded shots with guerrillas in 
a firefight this afternoon near the center of Falluja, a town about 30 
miles west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

The attack began after an ambush on American troops outside the Falluja 
mayor's office. One man was killed, and a woman, a six-year-old girl and 
two men were wounded, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.
	

At least one of the men was a Falluja police officer. A military 
spokesman confirmed the incident but said he could not provide any details.

Falluja is part of the Sunni Triangle, where most of Iraq's Sunni Muslim 
minority lives and resistance to the American occupation is strongest. 
The deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, and members of the 
sect dominated Iraq's government and business under his regime and fear 
that they may be shunted aside in a future government by the Shia Muslim 
majority.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of American troops in 
Iraq, said at a news conference in Baghdad today that guerrilla attacks 
are becoming more dangerous.

"The enemy has evolved, a little bit more lethal, a little more complex, 
a little more sophisticated," General Sanchez said. Attacks will 
continue, and could become even more deadly, he added.

"As long as we are here, the coalition need to be prepared to take 
casualties," General Sanchez said. "We should not be surprised if one of 
these days we wake up to find there's been a major firefight or a major 
terrorist attack."

Separately, the United States military said today that a 
rocket-propelled grenade had killed a soldier in a convoy near Samarra, 
about 100 miles north of Baghdad. The soldier was wounded and later died 
at a combat hospital, military authorities said in a statement.

His death brought the total number of soldiers killed in Iraq and Kuwait 
to 316 since the war began March 19. Since President Bush declared major 
combat operations over on May 1, 177 soldiers have died in Iraq and Kuwait.





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