Iraq's fresh eruption of violence pitting U.S.-led forces against Sunni guerrillas and now Shi'ite insurgents risks breaking the resolve of allies with troops on the ground, analysts said on April 7, 2004. The three dozen countries supporting the United States in Iraq have between them deployed some 26,500 troops, a snip compared to the United States' 130,000: but their withdrawal would be a huge political blow to President Bush
Members of the Iraqi special forces, a unit formed by Kurdish peshmergas, walk throught the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, April 7, 2004, for a joint patrol with U.S. Marines of the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment.
Iraqis look at the burned wreckage of a car after it was caught in a crossfire between Spanish troops and forces of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the city of Kufa April 7, 2004. U.S.-led forces battled Sunni Muslim guerrillas and a spreading Shi'ite uprising, as Iraqi anger was inflamed by the U.S. bombing of a mosque compound that witnesses said killed 25 people.
An Iraqi woman, covered in a hejab, lifts a Kalashnikov rifle in front of the offices of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the impoverished Baghdad suburb of Al Sadr City April 7, 2004.
A masked Iraqi militiaman carries his Kalashnikov rifle in front of the offices of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the Baghdad suburb of Al Sadr City April 7, 2004.
Masked members of Iraqi Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of Mehdi militia guard al-Sadr's office in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City
A hooded detainee sits in a car pit under the surveillance of US Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallujah. US Marines advancing from the south reached the center of the flashpoint Iraqi town of Fallujah amid fierce fighting against Sunni Muslim insurgents
A member of Iraqi Shiite Muslim radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of Mehdi, displays his membership badge with pictures of his leader and a grenade belt in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City
US troops retrieve a U.S. military helicopter that made an emergency landing in the city of Baqouba, Iraq, Wednesday April 7 2004.
Members of Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of Mehdi watch a US army position in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City
Members of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of Mehdi militia brandish their weapons as they chant anti-US slogans in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr city
An Iraqi Shiite cleric, member of leader Moqtada al-Sadr's Army of Mehdi militia brandishes his Kalashnikov as he shouts anti-US slogans during a rally in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City
An Iraqi woman sits beneath a defaced billboard advertising the new police force, in central Baghdad April 7, 2004. Despite Iraq's spiraling violence, its U.S.-led occupiers insist the transition to democracy they have planned is the best thing to happen to the country for decades. And with three months to go until the transition begins, they hope a $5.8 million advertising campaign will help convince Iraqis they are right.
An Italian soldier searches an Iraqi man at a crossroad on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah
Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, Commanding General of Ist Marine Expeditionary Force, right, talks with U.S. Marine Cpl. Fabian Carbajal of San Diego, Ca., with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment in the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, April 7, 2004. Hundreds of U.S. Marines attacked several neighborhoods in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah in order to regain control of the city.
Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, Commanding General of I Marine Expeditionary Force, left, gets information from U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment in the outskirts of Fallujah.
The old City of Najaf with the Imam Ali Mosque in the center in seen in this August 29, 2003 DigitalGlobe Imagery satellite picture. U.S. efforts to arrest firebrand Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr could spark a wider Shi'ite uprising and undermine Washington's control of Iraq, analysts at two military schools warned April 6, 2004. Sadr, 30, a radical cleric with tens of thousands of followers, was holed up in his office in the holy city of Najaf with armed supporters on Tuesday. U.S. officials have vowed to arrest him on a warrant for the killing of a Shi'ite cleric last year. Sadr's group has denied involvement.
U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment stand guard at a railway in the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, April 7, 2004. Hundreds of U.S. Marines attacked several neighborhoods in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah in order to regain control of the city.
U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment in military vehicles leave from their base to patrol in the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq
U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment in a military vehicle secure the area as one of their wounded colleague, not seen in the picture, is driven to their base in the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq
US Marines from the1st Marine Expeditionary Force move into Fallujah.
Militiamen of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr guard the entrance of Imam Ali's shrine in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq
Sunni insurgents guard the streets of Fallujah, Iraq
A Sunni insurgent guards a street of Fallujah,
Enemy fighters using area as safe haven; Marines face heavy resistance in Ramadi
