http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/international/01CND-SAMMY.html

October 1, 2004

U.S.-Led Force Says It Took Half of Iraqi City Held by Insurgents

By RICK LYMAN and DEXTER FILKINS

SAMARRA, Iraq, Oct. 1 -- American commanders said today that a large American and Iraqi force had taken control of at least half of this insurgent-ridden city, claiming they had killed more than 100 guerrillas in what is shaping up to be one of the largest operations since the war began.

More than 5,000 troops, including 3,000 Americans, attacked the city from three sides late Thursday, quickly seizing the main government buildings on the city's northwest end. American and Iraqi forces that numbered about 2,000 men took control of the Golden Mosque -- a Shiite holy site visited annually by thousands of pilgrims -- thereby staving off a repeat of the siege of Najaf, where insurgents commandeered the Imam Ali Shrine to draw out the fighting there.

The assault represented the first major effort by American and Iraqi forces to reclaim a series of areas that have fallen into the hands of insurgents ahead of the national elections scheduled to take place here in January.

The Americans said that one soldier, from the First Infantry Division, had been killed in the fighting and that four others were wounded.

American and Iraqi soldiers began sweeping the neighborhoods freshly under their control, carrying out hundreds of house-to-house searches in pursuit of suspected insurgents. Their main focus was the city's southeastern side, where several insurgents are believed to have taken up positions. By nightfall, the American and Iraqi forces prepared for hit-and-run attacks.

American and Iraqi officials said their plan was to flush the insurgents from the city, which had fallen under their control in recent months, re-establish government control and then pull the American troops back once the situation stabilized.

Four battalions of American troops from the First Infantry Division, backed by two battalions of Iraqi soldiers, began moving toward the city Thursday evening under cover of heavy fire. As midnight passed, the bang of exploding shells could be heard nearly two miles outside the city limits.

A statement released by the American military early today said that American and Iraqi forces had succeeded in entering the city and securing government and police buildings. The statement said the forces were acting "in response to repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces."

"Unimpeded access throughout the city for Iraqi security forces and multinational forces is non-negotiable," the statement said.

American officers said they were acting at the direct request of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

This city of 214,000 people, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, fell to the insurgents over the summer, one of a number of areas in the Sunni triangle north and west of Baghdad where the Americans and the Iraqi government have ceded control in recent months. As the operation got under way, American commanders said they aimed to take the city away from the insurgents and hold onto it.

"We are going to go in there and quiet it down," one American officer as his unit got ready to move.

The fighting follows several recent attempts to reassert control over the city through peaceful means. As recently as Tuesday, a large group of insurgents drove through the city in a convoy of about 20 trucks, some of them waving the banner of One God and Jihad, the battle flag of the Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.

The operation that began Thursday appeared to be the first directed at retaking the areas in advance of nationwide elections set for January. Iraqi and American officials have said they intend to reassert control over all of the areas that have slipped from their control, so that voting will be open to nearly all Iraqi voters.

At the moment, most of the areas beyond American and Iraqi government control are dominated by Sunni Arabs. The fear is that an election without a significant portion of Sunni Arab voters taking part would lack the legitimacy needed to unite the country and advance the democratic process.

On Sept. 9, American forces, after long talks with leaders of Samarra, went back into the city without firing a shot, reoccupying the city government building and resuscitating the local government there. American commanders there said they hoped their toehold in the city would be beginning of the restoration of Iraqi government control, but a series of firefights in recent days apparently dispelled those thoughts.

Troubling signs surfaced recently that the insurgents were getting stronger. American intelligence officers said they were concerned that insurgents in Samarra and Falluja had begun to cooperate, via the road that connects the two cities. At the same time, a group of insurgent leaders in Samarra declared their allegiance to the leaders in Falluja, called the Council of Holy Warriors.

Falluja, the scene of heavy fighting before the Americans decided to cede it to insurgents in April, has become the center of anti-government activity in the country.

"Falluja is a command and control center for the insurgency," a senior Iraqi official said Thursday.