Shia hostages hanged in streets in revenge for Saddam's execution

IT BEGINS

By Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad and Damien McElroy
Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 09/01/2007

Saddam Hussein's execution has inspired a gruesome cycle of revenge, with scores of Shia Muslims found hanged from lampposts in Baghdad.

The residents of the city's Haifa Street will long remember the events of Sunday morning. As shop owners raised their shutters and stall holders set out their stock, three minibuses roared to a halt.

Gunmen jumped out and pulled blindfolded prisoners on to the street. Ropes were tied to lampposts and electricity poles. Those hostages who resisted were shot. Others who were still alive had nooses tied around their necks and were then suspended in mid air to choke to death.

Capt Mohammad Salim, of the interior ministry, said: "We have gathered 102 Shia bodies and believe that 90 per cent of them were taken hostage for Saddam Hussein's execution and then found hanging from poles by ropes."

The discoveries were not limited to Haifa Street. People murdered in the same way had been found in Al Doura district and Amriya, in western Baghdad.

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Fierce firefight rages in central Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A fierce firefight marked by a steady barrage of mortar and machine-gun fire raged across central Baghdad as Iraq and US forces launched a crackdown against Sunni insurgents.

Iraqi troops were being backed by US fighter jets and military helicopters, which hovered above the capital's notorious Sunni neighbourhood of Haifa Street where the battle was centered, the US military and witnesses said.

Skirmishes began in the early hours of Tuesday and by daylight had grown into a heated firefight, forcing residents to steer clear of key roads.

The US military said soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi army division with support from coalition forces "are conducting targeted raids to capture multiple targets, disrupt insurgent activity and restore Iraqi security forces' control of north Haifa Street."

"This area has been subject to insurgent activity which has repeatedly disrupted Iraqi security force operation in central Baghdad," Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl said in the statement

Iraqi forces battle gunmen in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. troops battled gunmen in central Baghdad early Tuesday, and explosions were heard in the area, police and witnesses said.

Police said the clashes erupted when gunmen attacked Iraqi army checkpoints in the Haifa Street area, and that Iraqi soldiers appealed to the U.S. military for help. American forces sealed off roads and joined Iraqi troops in raiding houses in pursuit of the gunmen, police said.

The Iraqi defense ministry issued a statement saying eleven people were arrested, including seven Syrians.

The U.S. military said in an e-mail that its troops "continue to conduct clearing operations in Baghdad and throughout Iraq," and that it would release more information on the Haifa Street clashes later Tuesday.