(SomaliNet) On the eve of Gen. David H. Petraeus' testimony before the U.S Congress, three more U.S. troops were killed, Monday, amid fierce street battles between Shiite Muslim militias and Iraqi and American soldiers in the nation's capital.
In one of the most intense days of fighting here involving U.S. troops in recent months, American helicopters fired at least four Hellfire missiles and an Air Force jet dropped a bomb on a suspected militia target. Rockets and missiles launched from militia strongholds pounded U.S. bases around the city, where U.S. troops also came under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. Targets included the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and most Iraqi government buildings are located.
The latest American casualties brought to nine the number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq since Sunday. At least 18 U.S. service members have been killed in and around Baghdad since March 25, when fighting spread to the capital after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's decision to launch an offensive against Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra.
The fighting and rising death toll are likely to raise new questions about the role of the U.S. in Iraq, and how to define progress or success, as Army Gen. David H. Petraeus appears before Congress today with his latest assessment of the war. The long-awaited testimony will take place before committees that include all three major U.S. presidential candidates: Republican John McCain and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, all of whom will be afforded the chance to question the general.
The fighting in Baghdad has been some of the most intense since January 2007, when American helicopters and warplanes blasted central Baghdad's Haifa Street in an offensive against Sunni Arab insurgents. That month, President Bush announced the deployment of 21,500 extra Americans to quell Iraq's violence and give Iraqi leaders time to mend the political rivalries seen as the root of the fighting. An additional 7,000 support troops were later added.
Meanwhile, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Steven Stover, rejected Iraqi allegations that U.S. airstrikes and gunfire have killed mainly civilians.
"There might be some civilians that are getting caught, but for the most part, we're killing the bad guys.-Los Angles Times