lefthome

Insurgents control raided Iraq camp
From correspondents in Samarra, Iraq
24-03-2005
From: Agence France-Presse


UP to 40 fighters were seen today at a Iraq lakeside training camp attacked by US and Iraqi forces a day before and said they had never left, an AFP correspondent who visited the site said.
The correspondent, who went with other journalists to the camp at Lake Tharthar, 200km north of Baghdad, said he saw 30 to 40 fighters there.

The remains of three burnt vehicles were seen on a dusty road leading to the camp in the village of Ain al-Hilwa. A few mud huts were partly destroyed and a few big craters gouged the ground.

One of the fighters, who called himself Mohammed Amer and claimed to belong to the Secret Islamic Army, said they had never left the base.

He also said only 11 of his comrades were killed in airstrikes on the site.

Iraqi commanders said 85 suspected insurgents were killed in an assault by Iraqi troops and US aircraft on the camp yesterday.

No one was captured and others had fled by boat, he said.

Asked about the presence of rebels at the camp early today, a member of the Iraqi police commandos that took part in the operation said Iraqi and US troops withdrew from the area about 6.30pm Tuesday (2.30am AEDT Wednesday).

Local hospitals said they had received no casualties from the battle.

Shek

I think it is very smart by the Iraqis to demonstrate good news stories of their security forces to encourage tips. I would agree that there is definitely a propaganda fight going on here, and between this, the 26 insurgents killed in Salman Pak several days ago, and the 17 killed in Mosul on Monday night, the insurgency is taking a information operations beating right now.

Confed999

Everything except math is propaganda.

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

smilingassassin

Yeah, the math part is just a headache....