Word: samarra
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...dictator left his palaces for a series of hovels, from which he was removed and taken into a detention cell. His days and nights of perpetual motion have ceased. But in Tikrit-as well as Samarra, Baghdad, Fallujah, and other cities that experienced violence and unrest in the wake of Saddam's apprehension-the tension remains...
...convoy rounded a corner in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra on Nov. 30, Sergeant First Class Alvin Ware had a bad feeling. In the near distance, he could see men crouching on rooftops and darting down alleyways. His fears soon proved to be well founded. As the convoy approached, he realized that some of the figures were carrying mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Before long, says Ware, 34, "they were firing in all directions...
...local Iraqis recall a very different scene that day. They describe heavy fighting that indiscriminately mowed down civilians. Samarra citizens contend that only eight bodies were found after the fighting, at least two of them clearly noncombatants. They estimate that 54 civilians were wounded, including some hit near a mosque as they gathered for late-afternoon prayers. Samarrans reacted with deep anger to America's show of overwhelming firepower, which pockmarked swaths of the city with bullet holes, wrecked cars in the streets and killed and wounded many innocents. Even now, it's impossible to judge which version is closer...
...only thing everyone agrees on is that the fighting was exceptionally fierce, revealing a higher level of organization and coordination by the insurgents than had been seen before. The G.I.s drove into synchronized attacks on opposite ends of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad, as twin U.S. convoys escorted trucks delivering new post-Saddam currency to two city banks. The Americans were on general alert, traveling with plenty of heavy armor...
...POSTWAR'S BLOODIEST CLASH: A fierce fight in samarra yields two very different body counts...