Clashes Engulf Center of Baqubah

U.S. Troops Battle Bands of Insurgents and Heat in Day-Long Fighting

BAQUBAH, Iraq, June 26 -- Heavy fighting engulfed downtown Baqubah on Saturday as U.S. troops and black-clad insurgents clashed intermittently in palm groves, traffic circles and major avenues only days before a fledgling Iraqi government is scheduled to assume political authority after 15 months of occupation.

Following the coordinated attacks that ripped through six cities on Thursday and killed more than 100 Iraqis, U.S. military commanders said they expected more strikes as insurgents tried to disrupt the transfer of power on Wednesday. Those predictions proved true before 8 a.m. when insurgents operating in small groups peppered government buildings with rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire.

Many of the insurgents then dissolved into narrow alleys and clusters of date palms, a pattern that occurred throughout the hot, windy day.

U.S. troops pursued them in armored convoys and on foot through a downtown district crowded periodically with bewildered civilians, some of whom later joined the fight on the side of U.S. troops. On the city outskirts, meanwhile, U.S. soldiers raided houses looking for guerrillas and weapons stockpiles.

At times, the attacks followed amplified calls from Baqubah's many minarets, although soldiers were unsure if the messages were coordinating insurgent operations, as had been the case in previous uprisings.

By day's end, the outcome of the fighting remained inconclusive. U.S. officials later said six guerrillas were killed in the fighting. But to the soldiers watching the battlefield from a rooftop near the heart of the fighting, the challenges of imposing order here had become dauntingly clear after a day of clashes complicated by shifting rules of engagement, sapping heat and unorthodox guerrilla tactics.

"It's ever-changing scenery," said Sgt. Tom Evans, 34, a squad leader from 3rd Platoon, Bravo Battery, of the 1st Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team. Reflecting on the days remaining before the transfer of sovereignty, he said: "The closer we get to 30 June, the more of this stuff is happening."

The streets of this farming center 35 miles northeast of Baghdad had filled with traffic Saturday morning when insurgents blasted the Iraqi police station across the street from a compound used by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Rocket-propelled grenades slammed into several buildings, sending showers of debris into the streets below.

The firing came from both ends of the street below Evans's men, who manned machine guns and Mark-19 grenade launchers from sandbagged positions overlooking the occupation compound's north side. A few blocks farther north, the violet dome of the Anafsa mosque and its turquoise-tipped minaret peeked over three-story apartment buildings.

In the hours that followed, fighting swirled around the soldiers' tumbledown building, centering on the provincial government facility known as the "Blue Dome." That building, two blocks from the compound, sits near a palm grove in Baqubah's civic center.

In recent days, the insurgents have attacked the area repeatedly in an apparent effort to cut it off from additional U.S. forces and effect a symbolic capture of the city's seat of political power. Military commanders predict that the insurgents' objective will not change but that the scale of their attacks will grow more ambitious.

"Watch them, watch them!" shouted Evans, an ebullient Texan with a well-trimmed mustache and little patience for his soldiers' frequent swearing over the radio network. "Three individuals on your right."

A blue four-door sedan pulled into the empty avenue before 9 a.m. and appeared to fire a grenade into a building about 100 yards from the compound. Evans's soldiers fired on the car, and the men inside darted down a side alley.

Through sniper scopes, the soldiers could see the men partially hidden behind a blue banner with Arabic inscriptions. An informant later told a guard at the compound gate that the car contained weapons.