Heavy Fighting Drives US Out Of Tal ‘Afar Districts; More Attacks Reported

US occupation forces and their Iraqi collaborators were forced to withdraw from the center of Tal‘Afar after fierce fighting raged throughout the central, northern, and eastern parts of the city Tuesday, while more attacks throughout the country were reported.

Witnesses told the Tal‘Afar correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam that fighters armed with light and medium weapons, including RPG7 rocket-propelled grenades, BKC machine guns, pipe rockets, and bombs battled the Americans and the puppet Iraqi troops in the city. The heavy combat forced the US and their Iraqi collaborators to fall back, leaving the central and northern parts of Tall ‘Afar and parts of the eastern section of the city in the hands of the Resistance.

The witnesses confirmed that US vehicles were seen pulling out of the city, dragging along the burning hulks of Humees and armored vehicles. The witnesses said that “dozens” of American troops had fallen either killed or wounded in the course of the heavy fighting Tuesday.

Resistance Attacks Advancing US Column, Throws It Back North Of Tall ‘Afar Tuesday Morning

Fighters attacked US and Iraqi puppet troops blockading the city of Tall ‘Afar in northern Iraq at about 10am local time Tuesday morning. The Resistance forces fired mortars and light and medium weapons at the invaders and their stooges. Residents of Tall ‘Afar told Mafkarat al-Islam that the fighters attacked a column that was on its way into the city from the north. The men obstructed the American advance and then attacked with mortars, RPG7 rocket-propelled grenades, and C5K pipe rockets, setting two Humvees ablaze and destroying a US armored vehicle. Eight American soldiers were reportedly killed and four more wounded in the attack, which forced the US column to withdraw to the north. The witnesses told Mafkarat al-Islam that four Resistance fighters were wounded in the engagement.

Three American Soldiers Reported Dead In Bombing North Of Mosul

A bomb exploded by a US patrol on a road in the overgrown area north of Mosul at 10am local time Tuesday morning. The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported residents of a village near the al-Ghabat area as saying that a bomb that was planted next to the road leading to the area exploded when a patrol of seven Humvees passed by. The blast destroyed one of the Humvees, reportedly killing three American soldiers and wounding a fourth.

Resistance Executes Puppet Police Intelligence Officer In Basra

In a dispatch posted at 11:58pm Kuwait time Monday night, the Kuwaiti News Agency Kuna reported that Iraqi Resistance fighters had unleashed a hail of bullets on the car carrying an officer in the puppet police directorate of intelligence in al-Basrah on Monday, killing the intelligence officer. Kuna quoted sources in the puppet police as saying that the Resistance fighters left the scene after shooting the officer on a street in al-Basrah.

Collaborators Living In Basra Receive Death Threats

Sources close to the so-called “Iraqi national guards” who live in Basra have disclosed to Mafkarat al-Islam that they have begun receiving death threats, telling them that they must quit work within the ranks of the organization. An officer in the puppet guards who lives in northern Basra told Mafkarat al-Islam that he found an envelope that had been slipped under his door early in the morning containing a threat to kill him, adding that his fate would be that of an officer assassinated some weeks before.

Local sources say that most officers in the puppet “national guard” who are local residents have stopped wearing uniforms and now go to work in civilian clothes, only changing into uniforms at work. The death threats and increased pressure of assassination follow a wave of sectarian abductions, tortures, and murders that the Badr Brigades and local puppet police in Basra launched shortly after the US-installed Shi ‘puppet “prime minister” Ibrahim al-Ja‘fari was installed in April.