another forward from Byron Black -- notice difference of emphasis between NYTimes and Guardian

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Subject: NYTimes.com Article: 25 Slain and 40 Wounded in Iraq as Raid on
Police Frees Prisoners

 This article from NYTimes.com
 has been sent to you by blacky@cbn.net.id.


 Note that this version does not include the "Yanks idly standing by"
angle compared with the Guardian version.

 February 15, 2004
  By DEXTER FILKINS

 FALLUJA, Iraq, Feb. 14 - Guerrillas shouting "God is great"
 staged a brazen assault on the main police station here on
 Saturday, blasting their way inside, killing at least 15
 police officers and freeing dozens of prisoners.

 Four of the attackers were killed as well as several Iraqi
 civilians, bringing the number of dead to 25. At least 40
 people were wounded.

 Documents found on the four dead attackers indicated that
 two were Lebanese and that one was Iranian, the Americans
 said. The presence of fighters from those countries could
 be disturbing to Iraqis.

 The attack came at the end of an extraordinarily violent
 week in Iraq, when two suicide bombings killed more than
 100 people.

 Falluja is a center of anti-American sentiment, and in
 recent weeks American troops have largely ceded
 responsibility for the city to Iraqi security forces,
 hoping that they can handle the insurgency in the delicate
 period before the planned transfer of governmental
 authority to the Iraqis at the end of June. The attack on
 Saturday represents a blow to that strategy.

 Yet at the same time, many people in Falluja are clamoring
 for the first signs of democracy. [Page 16.]

 The attack on the police station was unusually bold and
 sophisticated, with the insurgents advancing from four
 sides, firing heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled
 grenades.

 The assault was coupled with a simultaneous attack on an
 Iraqi civil defense headquarters about a mile away,
 intended to hold that center in check while the prison
 break unfolded. In all, the insurgents numbered 30 to 50,
 operating with heavy firepower in morning light.

 The goal of the raid, which lasted several minutes, was
 unclear, but there were indications that it was intended to
 free a small group held inside. American officials
 estimated that 70 prisoners had escaped, most of them
 common criminals, although the Iraqis put the figure
 higher.

 One police officer said the attackers had taken 18
 prisoners with them.

 A senior occupation official, speaking on the condition of
 anonymity, said that of the four attackers who died, three
 were carrying the documents indicating they were foreign
 citizens.

 The Americans said the attack appeared to have been an
 attempt by supporters of Saddam Hussein's former
 government, with the help of foreigners, to free a group of
 four insurgents who were captured attacking a busload of
 Iraqi civil defense forces last week.

 The senior occupation official said there were indications
 that the attackers had had help from the inside.

 Only two days before, on Thursday, Iraqi insurgents
 attacked a convoy carrying Gen. John P. Abizaid, the
 commander of American forces in the Middle East. The
 general was unhurt.

 The apparent nationalities of the attackers lent credence
 to claims by Iraqi officers that the attackers were trying
 to free a group of Iranians captured last week.

 The claims, made Saturday by a number of police officers,
 dovetailed with statements made earlier this week by the
 Falluja police chief, Brig. Abid Farhan, speaking at a
 meeting with the Falluja city council and an American
 lieutenant colonel. Brigadier Farhan said an unspecified
 number of Iranians were captured as they tried to drive
 into the city late last month. After those arrests, the
 chief said, he imposed a 10 p.m. curfew across the city.

 The American lieutenant colonel, Brian Drinkwine, whose
 battalion is based in Falluja, heard the statements by
 Brigadier Farhan at the meeting and did not challenge them.

 After the attack on Saturday, a Falluja police captain said
 that Iranians had indeed been captured recently but that
 they had not been at the main jail at the time of the
 attack.

 "I think we still have five Iranians, but they were in
 another jail," Capt. Abbas Fathal said.

 Another police officer wounded in the attack, Faris
 Ibrahim, reiterated from his hospital bed that a group of
 Iranians had been captured in the city.

 "We knew they were Iranians because they could not speak
 Arabic, only Persian," he said.

 The attack began at 8 a.m., when many of the officers were
 at breakfast. The assailants threaded through the barricade
 wall and barbed wire that ringed the area. Officer Mahmood
 Falla said he had just fallen out from his daily inspection
 line when the shooting started. He said he had picked up
 his gun and managed to shoot one insurgent.

 "They took us completely by surprise," Officer Falla said.

 If proved, the presence of Iranian agents inside Iraq would
 be potentially explosive here. Falluja is an Sunni Muslim
 city, where people are acutely sensitive to the growing
 political power of the country's Shiite majority. They are
 also wary of Iran, a Shiite country.

 Earlier this week, American officials said they had
 obtained a 17-page memorandum outlining plans by Sunni
 Muslim insurgents in Iraq to start a "sectarian war" with
 Iraq's Shiites.

 After the battle on Saturday, the Iraqi police recovered a
 black battle flag. In the Muslim world, black is the color
 of the Shiites.