Insurgents battled US and Iraqi forces for about 10 hours in the capital today. This was perhaps the most intense battle in Baghdad since the start of the war and the insurgents refused to disappear into the city as they have in the past when the US forces showed in force with jets and helicopters.
CNN has some great video that is worth the click.
Fierce Fighting Erupts in Baghdad
By MARC SANTORA
BAGHDAD, Jan. 9 — American and Iraqi troops, backed by helicopter gunships and F-18 warplanes, fought with insurgents in the streets of downtown Baghdad for several hours this morning, military officials said.
It was the fourth straight day of clashes in the Haifa Street neighborhood, and by far the most fierce, according to witnesses who live in the area.
While much of the information coming out about the fighting was murky, Iraqi officials said that at least 50 suspected insurgents had been killed and 11 more arrested. News services said that as many as 100 people have died in the fighting since it erupted on Saturday.
The Iraqi government’s official spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said that Iraqi troops were trying with American help to wipe out "terrorist hideouts" in the area, news services reported. He said former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party were to blame for the fighting because they were providing safe havens in the neighborhood for Sunni insurgents "for them to destabilize Iraq."
In the first official response here to President Bush’s plan to send more American troops to Baghdad, Mr. Dabbagh said that "the Iraqi government does not object to an increase in coalition forces."
He said that American and Iraqi forces would avoid the "mistakes" made in previous efforts to stabilize Baghdad.
Officials in Washington have said that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has lobbied hard for speeding the transition to Iraqi control of security in the capital. They said he agreed during a videoconference with Mr. Bush last week to provide additional Iraqi troops to work jointly with the American reinforcements the president plans to announce on Wednesday night.
Concerning the Haifa Street fighting, American military officials said that the goal was to disrupt insurgent activity in the neighborhood, which is not far from the heavily fortified government Green Zone, following repeated attacks on Iraqi security forces with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades over the past week.
Long considered a redoubt for loyalists to Saddam Hussein, the neighborhood is predominantly Sunni. Two years ago, American forces made a concentrated effort to get the area under control, and until recently it was considered relatively stable.
However, several days ago, Iraqi Army soldiers came under attack there when they went to collect the remains of 27 people who had been killed execution-style and then dumped behind a local hospital.
Since then, there have been reports of Sunni insurgents setting up fake checkpoints, stopping Shiites, murdering them and then hanging the dead bodies from lampposts, as grim warning for the few Shiites remaining in the community.
Those reports have been contradicted by Sunnis who live in the neighborhood, who say they have been made targets by the Iraqi Army simply because they are Sunni.
Today’s fighting began before dawn, at around 5 a.m., when Iraqi troops began fanning out on Haifa Street with American forces supporting them, according to Iraqi military officials and witnesses.
A few hours later, Iraqi and American forces jointly began raiding the homes of suspected insurgents, the American military said.
One witness, Abu Mohammed, said that he saw only Iraqi troops entering the homes, not Americans.
During the raids, which Mr. Mohammed said led to the arrest of eight young men, the troops came under attack.
At that point the fighting quickly escalated, and the American forces became heavily involved.
Around 11 a.m., American fighter jets could be seen flying low over the area, dipping below the clouds and then quickly disappearing out of sight into the overcast sky. American helicopters also hovered over the scene. Loud explosions were heard, apparently from bombs falling on insurgent positions, but it was not clear whether the jets or the helicopters were dropping the explosives.
Mr. Mohammed said he saw one of the bombs hit a compound that seemed to be providing shelter for the gunmen. The compound was obliterated, but the gunmen were behind it, not inside, and were able to escape the attack, he said.
Baghdad fighting 'kills dozens'
Smoke rises over western Baghdad
The battle raged from the early hours of the morning
US and Iraqi troops have waged fierce battles with Sunni fighters in central Baghdad, reportedly killing 50 people.
The joint US-Iraqi forces were backed by US aircraft which fired into the Haifa Street area, witnesses said.
The aim of the operation was to purge the district from "terrorists", Iraqi defence ministry spokesman Maj Gen Ibrahim Shaker said.
The fighting came after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised tough action against illegal armed groups.
"All our political, economic, media, security and military resources will be used to support the operations which the capital Baghdad is waiting for," he said.
The Iraqi defence ministry said some 50 people had been killed and 21 militants - including seven foreigners - arrested in Tuesday's fighting.
A steady barrage of mortar and machine-gun fire was heard along the west bank of the Tigris.
Police sources told the BBC that the Haifa Street clashes follow two days of violence in the Sunni stronghold, after an Iraqi army unit found 27 bodies dumped in the nearby Sheikh Marouf cemetery
The military reportedly sent troops to arrest those responsible for the killings, triggering the clashes.