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  • Massive hunt for insurgents in Samarra

    U.S. Troops Hunt For Militants
    Associated Press
    December 18, 2003

    SAMARRA, Iraq - Using sledgehammers, crowbars, explosives and armored vehicles, U.S. forces smashed down the gates of homes and the doors of workshops and junkyards Wednesday to attack the Iraqi resistance that has persisted despite the capture of Saddam Hussein.

    In Baghdad, guerrillas ambushed a U.S. military patrol with small arms fire, killing one soldier from the 1st Armored Division and injuring another, the military said.

    The soldier's death brings the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat to 314 as violence persists after Saddam was detained on Saturday.

    Staff Sgt. Kimberly A. Voelz, 27, of Carlisle, Pa., was killed Sunday in Iskandariyah, Iraq, as her unit was responding to an explosive ordinance disposal call, the Defense Department said.

    A soldier assigned to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) was killed Tuesday in a vehicle accident southwest of Mosul, Iraq. Some 144 soldiers have died of non-hostile causes, according to the Pentagon.

    The raid, launched before dawn and lasting until midmorning, targeted the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

    Loud blasts mixed with the sound of women and children screaming inside the houses. An explosion at the gate of one compound shattered windows, cutting a 1-year-old baby with glass. U.S. medics treated the injury while other soldiers handcuffed four men, who were later released.

    U.S. officials say some 1,500 fighters operate in Samarra, making it one of the persistent hotspots in the so-called Sunni Triangle.

    "Samarra has been a little bit of a thorn in our side," said Col. Nate Sassaman. "It hasn't come along as quickly as other cities in the rebuilding of Iraq. This operation is designed to bring them up to speed."

    The coalition scored a major victory Saturday by nabbing Saddam, who Iraqi officials revealed Wednesday was currently being held in the Baghdad area. But violence has continued in the capital and in predominantly Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad, once Saddam's power base.

    In the northern city of Mosul, assailants shot and killed a policeman Wednesday, police said. And Iraqi security forces there opened fire on pro-Saddam protesters, wounding nine, witnesses said.

    In Baghdad, a fuel truck exploded after colliding with a bus at an intersection, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding 20 - raising initial claims by Iraqi officials that it was a suicide bombing by Saddam loyalists. But U.S. officials later said the blast was an accident, not an attack.

    In the Samarra raid by some 2,500 troops, dubbed Operation Ivy Blizzard, the 4th Infantry Division and Iraqi forces detained at least a dozen suspected guerrillas - though others got away, apparently tipped off about the raid.

    In the city's industrial zone, troops used even their Bradley fighting vehicles to break down the doors of warehouses, workshops and junkyards.

    "Locksmiths will make a lot of money these days," said a U.S. soldier, laughing as he sat atop a Bradley.

    The sweep came after U.S. troops on Tuesday snared a suspected rebel leader and 78 other people, all in one building near Samarra where they apparently were planning attacks. On Monday, guerrillas in the city ambushed an American patrol, sparking a battle in which soldiers killed 11 attackers.

    "They've made a mistake to attack U.S. forces," Sassaman said. "No one knows the town better than we do. We're gonna clean this place."

    With Saddam in custody, the most wanted Iraqi fugitive is Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a high-ranking member of the former regime thought to be organizing anti-U.S. attacks. But it was unclear whether U.S. officials think al-Douri is in the Samarra area.

    In Wednesday's sweep, soldiers used satellite positioning devices to locate buildings pre-marked as targets.

    As Apache helicopters flew overhead, troops downtown fanned out in squads of 14 to storm several walled residential compounds, using plastic explosives to break in.

    At one home, an explosion ignited a small fire. Elsewhere, a suspect was punched in the head and a soldier said: "You're dead. You're dead."

    Troops later moved on to the industrial area, where they found little. One military official said he suspected insurgents moved much of their equipment to farms outside town.

    Sassaman said troops in Samarra seized four rocket-propelled grenade launchers and a dozen assault rifles, as well as bomb-making material.

    Meanwhile, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council said the U.S. military is holding Saddam in the Baghdad area. U.S. officials have previously said the former dictator was at an undisclosed location in Iraq.

    "He is still in greater Baghdad," said council member Mouwafak al-Rubaie. "Maybe he will stay there until he stands trial."

    The council has established a war crimes tribunal and hopes to put him on trial for human rights abuses. The United Nations, the Vatican and many countries oppose putting Saddam on trial before any court that could sentence him to death - and others have expressed worries Iraq's justice system cannot try him fairly.

    Council member Adnan Pachachi said "all stages of the trial will be public." He added that international experts "are always welcome" because the tribunal allows for the appointment of foreign judges.

    http://www.military.com/NewsContent/...121803,00.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

  • #2
    U.S. hunts for more Samarra insurgents

    U.S. hunts for more Samarra insurgents

    BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces have netted a significant number of "high-value targets" in an operation to root out insurgents in Samarra and intend to kill or capture those who remain, a U.S. military commander said Thursday.

    Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the troops still have "a lot of work to do," including finding out how many insurgents are in the north-central city, a hub of anti-coalition activity.

    Samarra is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Saddam Hussein's ancestral homeland of Tikrit.

    "We'll just use the next couple of days to kill or capture those insurgents working against the people of Iraq," Kimmett said.

    Called Operation Ivy Blizzard, the operation got under way Wednesday as U.S. troops sealed off Samarra and detained 30 suspects in house-to-house raids. It came a day after forces conducted raids in Samarra and captured 74 Iraqis, including a leader of the paramilitary group Fedayeen Saddam and a financier of anti-coalition activity.

    The 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Ironhorse and Iraqi police are conducting the sweeps.

    Under the command of Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, the operation is also an attempt to "build the confidence and trust" of the people in Samarra, Kimmitt said.

    http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

    Comment


    • #3
      U.S. launches anti-insurgent operation

      U.S. launches anti-insurgent operation

      Joint chiefs chairman says Saddam 'not being cooperative'

      Sunday, December 21, 2003 Posted: 6:45 PM EST (2345 GMT)

      BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. troops overnight launched a new operation targeting anti-coalition insurgents, the military said Sunday, capturing more than 100 enemy personnel and confiscating arms caches.

      The U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment launched Operation Rifles Fury on Sunday, joining the 82nd Airborne's Task Force All American, the 4th Infantry Division's Operation Iron Horse and other units chasing insurgents, a military spokeswoman said.

      Operating in western Iraq near the border with Syria, Operation Rifles Fury also will "destroy terrorist training camps in the Rawah area," the spokeswoman said.

      Meanwhile, a week after the United States announced that it had captured Saddam Hussein, U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Myers told CNN's "Late Edition" that the toppled Iraqi leader "was not being cooperative, ... defiant is probably a good word."

      Documents in Saddam's possession at the time of his arrest, however, were providing insight into the Iraqi insurgent movement, according to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

      Anti-insurgent patrols and searches by the 82nd Airborne captured 96 "terrorists" and searches by the 1st Battalion, 550th Parachute Infantry Regiment captured another 14 "enemy personnel" over the last 24 hours, the spokeswoman said. The troops also confiscated small arms caches.

      Both units operate west of Baghdad in the area of Fallujah and Ramadi.

      Also appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Myers said that since Saddam's capture, U.S. forces had picked up "more than several hundred" insurgents.

      "The information gleaned when we picked up Saddam Hussein led to a better understanding of the structure [of the insurgency]," said Myers, who has just recently returned from Iraq. "We think there are some of the leadership of this insurgency [caught up in the sweep]."

      Myers also said that the United States was committed to maintaining at least 100,000 troops in the country through the end of next year.

      Regarding the interrogation of Saddam at an undisclosed location, Myers would only say that the former Iraqi president was "not being cooperative."

      Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said Sunday that Saddam is unlikely to give up any useful intelligence.

      "I think he was confused and somewhat bewildered at first, somewhat shocked at his circumstances," Roberts said, appearing on CBS' "Face Nation." "But he soon reverted to the old speeches that he gave."

      The documents captured with Saddam have shed more light on the resistance, Roberts said.

      They "gave us an insight on the intelligence side on how these cells are operating," he said. The insurgent cells "largely came from the Baath Party and specific places in the Baath Party."

      Official: Gasoline lines hit
      Meanwhile, Issam Jassim, a spokesman for Iraq's Oil Ministry, told CNN on Sunday that insurgents had hit gasoline supply lines near Baghdad overnight Friday.

      One attack targeted a pipeline in Mishada, about 22 miles north of Baghdad, he said, and in the other, a rocket-propelled grenade hit a line south of the capital.

      In that attack, Jassim said, about 2.6 million gallons of gas were lost. He had no figures for the first attack.

      Later Sunday, a fuel storage facility went up in a roaring blaze of fire, but officials could not say if insurgents were responsible.

      Also Sunday, a four-member delegation from the Arab League toured Baghdad in advance of a scheduled Wednesday meeting with the Iraqi Governing Council, Iraq's Foreign Ministry said.

      The group, led by Ahmed Bin Hilli, assistant to the league's secretary-general for political affairs, arrived Friday. Saturday, they met with Iraq's acting foreign minister.

      The 22-nation Arab League does not recognize the Governing Council as the legitimate governing body of Iraq.

      Myers, asked on Fox about rumors of a plot to kidnap members of the Governing Council and exchange them for Saddam, said such a plot "should not be a surprise."

      "I don't know how to answer that in terms of seriousness," he said. "But we've seen this: they've gone after the infrastructure, they've gone after chiefs of police, they've gone after mayors."

      Those civilians working toward Iraqi democracy -- including the coalition's chief civilian administrator, L. Paul Bremer -- "show as much courage as the soldiers on the ground," he said.

      http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html
      "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

      Comment


      • #4
        Hundreds detained in Iraq sweep

        Hundreds detained in Iraq sweep

        Several hundred Iraqis have been arrested in the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture, American's top general has said.

        General Richard Myers, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told US TV some of the detainees were thought to be leaders of the insurgency.

        He said the US military now understood better the structure of the resistance.

        But Saddam Hussein, captured in Tikrit last week, was not co-operating with his interrogators, General Myers said.


        Documents

        "We've put our best interrogators on him," General Myers told Fox News. "The only word I have is that he is not being co-operative."

        He gave no details of the raids but said : "The capture of Saddam Hussein and the intelligence we gleaned from him is a big step in the inevitable process of Iraq's march to democracy."

        His comments echo the message from American troops on the ground that Saddam Hussein's arrest has given coalition forces an insight into the organisation of the Iraqi insurgency.

        US military officials say a briefcase of documents discovered in Saddam Hussein's hiding hole has also yielded useful information.

        US forces have stepped up their search for mid-ranking officials of the ousted Iraqi regime following the capture of the former Iraqi leader.

        Ongoing arrests

        In his interview, General Myers said he did not have the precise number of those detained because the operations were continuing.

        Witnesses quoted by Reuters news agency said US troops were conducting a second day of house-to-house searches in the town of Rawah on Sunday, close to the border with Syria.

        A US officer said 60 people had been detained, and weapons including assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades had been seized.

        Other operations had been conducted in:



        Samarra, in northern Iraq: 111 people detained over 48 hours, according to the US military

        Falluja, west of Baghdad: five arrested in dawn raid, witnesses said

        Jalulah in the north: 36 people held, US spokeswoman said

        The country's infrastructure is still being targeted, as well as coalition forces and Iraqi police officers.


        Iraqi oil ministry officials have confirmed that two pipelines were attacked on Friday night, causing what they called significant leakage.

        And on Sunday, a huge fire followed an explosion at a warehouse in Baghdad containing 350 barrels of fuel.

        It is not clear what caused the blast, but these incidents will exacerbate the fuel shortage which has blighted the lives of many Iraqis, says the BBC's Chris Hogg in Baghdad.

        http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3338685.stm
        "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

        Comment


        • #5
          U.S. rounds up more suspects in Iraq

          U.S. rounds up more suspects in Iraq

          BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. military raids netted two suspected insurgents near Ba'qubah in eastern Iraq and three former high-level Iraqi soldiers around Fallujah, west of Baghdad, authorities said Tuesday.

          Also, gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi judge, Youssef Murad, in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said Tuesday. No further details were available in the shooting.

          During raids in the Ba'qubah region north of the capital, U.S. forces detained four additional suspects and discovered small arms and a bag of nuclear-chemical-biological protective gear -- standard issue for soldiers, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit.

          Aberle said the latter is a good indication that those detained are former military personnel.

          Ba'qubah and Fallujah are part of the violent region called the "Sunni Triangle," where anti-American resistance has been the strongest since the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March.

          The area is home to much of the nation's minority Sunni Muslims, many of whom are supporters of Saddam Hussein. U.S. forces seized the toppled Iraqi leader December 13 south of his ancestral homeland of Tikrit. (Full story)

          Aberle said a U.S. battalion in a raid north of Ba'qubah captured an individual suspected of "recruiting terrorists" to attack U.S. forces.

          On Monday afternoon, troops around Ba'qubah spotted two people digging near a weapons cache. Two were detained, and mortar rounds and rockets were seized, according to Aberle.

          Elsewhere, soldiers at a checkpoint detained a suspect thought to be a commander of a local Islamic extremist group, Aberle said. The suspect was listed on a 2nd Brigade Combat team wanted list, according to Aberle.

          Ex-Iraqi generals detained
          Northwest of Fallujah, the 82nd Airborne Division's area of operations, 26 people were captured in a cordon and search operation, including two former Iraqi generals and a special forces colonel. Small weapons were confiscated, U.S. Central Command said.

          Also, Iraqi police and U.S. forces conducted a raid south of Balad Ruz and arrested one person, Aberle said. Fuses and wires were confiscated, she said.

          The actions followed a day after two U.S. soldiers with the 1st Armored Division and an Iraqi translator were killed when their convoy struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad, according to Central Command.

          Two other soldiers in the patrol were wounded and evacuated to a hospital, Central Command said.

          At least one convoy vehicle was disabled in the blast near a gas station in the Adhamiya neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, officials said. Quick-reaction forces swept the area looking for suspects, they said.

          On Sunday, the U.S. military announced that a new operation was under way targeting anti-coalition insurgents. More than 100 suspects were captured, and arms caches were confiscated, a military spokeswoman said.

          As part of Operation Rifles Fury, the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment joined up with the 82 Airborne Division's Task Force All American, Operation Ironhorse and other units chasing insurgents, the spokeswoman said.

          In the holy Shiite city of Najaf in central Iraq, an Arab League delegation met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Tuesday and discussed the country's future. The head of the delegation for the pan-Arab group described the visit as "useful."

          "He [al-Sistani] expressed a number of important ideas, and we were happy that the Arab League would have an active role in the future of Iraq," said Ahmed bin al-Hili of the Arab League.

          http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html
          "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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