18 U.S. troops die during Iraqi battles

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BAGHDAD -- U.S. Marines battled insurgents yesterday in the Sunni cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, suffering as many as a dozen dead, while radical Shi'ites continued their uprising with attacks on coalition forces in at least seven cities and towns.

Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Shi'ite "Mahdi's Army" was behind the attacks in the south, brushed off an Iraqi arrest warrant as his heavily armed forces pledged to fight to the death to defend him.

The worst American casualties were suffered in Ramadi, about 60 miles west of Baghdad, where insurgents overran government buildings and engaged in a fierce battle with U.S. forces. Marines were reported to be counterattacking last night.

"There may have been as many as a dozen Marine deaths" in Ramadi, a government official told Reuters news agency in Washington, adding that "a significant number" of Iraqis were killed. Details of the battle were not immediately available.

The casualties come on top of 19 combat deaths suffered by U.S. forces in Iraq since Sunday.

Also yesterday, the Marines began their anticipated assault on Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, seeking the insurgents who ambushed and killed four American contractors last week.

Residents of the city cowered indoors amid the roar of American warplanes and the steady crackle of small-arms fire late into the night.

"In the day, helicopters flew above the city, and people with their guns tried to shoot at them. The helicopters shot back," said Eman Mahmood, a housewife.

"Now there are no helicopters but warplanes, high in the sky, and they have begun dropping bombs," she said by telephone last night.

Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite news channel, also reported the presence of U.S. warplanes.