Saturday, Jun 14, 2003
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Claiming that the U.S. forces entered a mosque and stole money there, protesters demand action against the troops, in Baghdad on Friday. — AFP
Friday's clash came as American forces pressed forward with a massive sweep to crush resistance by supporters of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime north of Baghdad. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers said the U.S. forces were sifting through intelligence that ``foreign fighters'' may have been at an alleged terrorist training camp northwest of Baghdad bombed early Thursday by U.S. forces. In Washington on Friday, a senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about 70 opposition fighters were killed in Thursday's attack — most apparently non-Iraqis from other countries in the region. If confirmed, it would be the first indication since the war's end that non-Iraqi volunteers were still in the country. Before the war in March, Iraq claimed that thousands of Arab fighters poured into the country to resist the invasion. They provided some of the stiffest resistance once American forces entered Baghdad. Separately, the U.S. troops acting on an intelligence tip arrested 74 people described as sympathisers of the Al-Qaida terrorist network in a raid on Thursday near the northern city of Kirkuk, said the U.S. Central Command. The U.S. Central Command said an ``organised group'' ambushed the tanks with rocket propelled grenades near Balad, near the capital on the main highway north. The statement did not mention the U.S. casualties. The patrol returned fire and killed four of the assailants in the initial gunbattle, the military said. When the rest of the attackers fled, Apache helicopters joined the chase along with tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, killing 23 more assailants. The statement did not say whether any escaped. Witnesses said the attackers rushed towards the tank column from a thicket of reeds near sunflower fields on an isolated rural road a few miles south of Balad. A young farmer, said he was hiding with his family in his house about 150 meters away when he heard the shooting and saw flashes of gunfire. After the clash, the Americans took away the bodies, he said. The attack was the latest in increasing resistance to the American-led occupation of Iraq since the war was declared over on May 1. Since then, about 40 On Thursday, American warplanes bombed an alleged training facility 150 km northwest of Baghdad, looking for members of the now-banned Ba'ath Party, Iraqi paramilitary groups and ``other subversive elements,'' said a military statement. A fierce ground battle followed the air strike in which the Iraqi forces suffered heavy casualties. One American soldier was wounded, said the U.S. Central Command. Also on Thursday, Iraqi fighters shot down an Apache helicopter gunship — the first American aircraft downed by ground fire since Mr. Hussein's ouster two months ago — and a U.S. F-16 fighter-bomber crashed on Thursday. The crews of the aircraft were rescued unharmed. Earlier this week, U.S. forces launched a sweep through towns of the so-called ``Sunni triangle'' north of and west of Baghdad in central Iraq. Coalition forces did not give a total of Iraqi casualties in the operation, but said about 400 Iraqis have been arrested. — AP
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