Posted on 05/27/2007 8:21:11 AM PDT by Kaslin
BAGHDAD — U.S. forces rescued 42 Iraqi civilians Sunday from an Al Qaeda hide-out northeast of Baghdad, including some who showed signs of torture and broken bones, a senior U.S. official said.
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said it was the largest number of detained Iraqis ever found in a single Al Qaeda hide-out. Some among the 42 had been held as long as four months, he said.
Details were incomplete, but Caldwell said some of the freed Iraqis were being transported to medical facilities for treatment of their injuries. There were no indications that Americans had been held at the hide-out, he said. It was not immediately clear whether any Al Qaeda figures were captured.
The discovery was unrelated to a search south of Baghdad for two missing U.S. soldiers.
U.S. forces previously have found a number of houses used by Al Qaeda for detention, including some where prisoners showed signs of torture. But the hide-out raided Sunday in Diyala province was the largest, Caldwell said in a telephone interview. He declined to be more specific about the location, citing security reasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
networks, not etworks
At least AP reported this, for a change.
Yeah but I was talking about the news networks
In a US jail, out of control guards mock you and hurt your feelings. The guards who do this are eventually sentenced to do hard time.
In an Al Qaeda facility, you are beaten, burned, broken, and eventually have your head sawed off.
There are no Red Cross inspections to make sure the bone knives are kept sharp and hygienic.
Saw it on CNN.
U.S. frees 42 al-Qaida captives in raid
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago
BAGHDAD - U.S. forces raided an al-Qaida hide-out northeast of Baghdad on Sunday and freed 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday.
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The raid was part of a 3-month-old security crackdown that included the deployment of 3,000 more U.S. troops to Diyala, a violent province north of the capital that has seen heavy fighting in recent weeks, said Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq.
Caldwell said Iraqis told U.S. forces about the hide-out: "The people in Diyala are speaking up against al-Qaida."
Caldwell said the 42 freed Iraqis marked the largest number of captives ever found in a single al-Qaida prison.
Some of the freed Iraqis had been held for as long as four months and some had injuries from torture and were being taken to medical facilities for treatment, he said.
Also Sunday, U.S. and Iraqi troops raided Baghdad's Sadr City slum on Sunday, targeting Shiite insurgent cells there for a second day, arresting one suspect believed to be involved in smuggling Iran high-powered, armor piercing bombs from Iran that have been used against U.S. armored vehicles, the U.S. military said. The cell has also sent Iraqi militants to Iran for training, the military said.
During another raid in Sadr City, troops shot an approaching vehicle that ignored their signals to stop, the military said. No one was injured in the shooting, but the vehicle was set ablaze, the military said.
AP Television News footage showed several cars burned and destroyed in the street, including a van that was scorched black, had its windows knocked out and its upholstery incinerated. The footage also showed a house that appeared to have been ransacked.
Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric who emerged from months in hiding last week, met Sunday in Najaf with leaders of his movement to discuss Iraq's security and political situation, said Salah al-Obeidi, a senior aide to al-Sadr.
"The occupation forces bear responsibility for the suffering the country is facing and there is no solution but the withdrawal of the forces," said al-Obeidi, echoing demands al-Sadr made in the sermon he delivered after reappearing Friday.
Al-Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army militia has repeatedly battled with U.S. and British troops in the streets of Sadr City and Basra, where British troops killed one of the cleric's commanders in a gunfight Friday.
After two days of pitched fighting with the Shiite militants, the British carried out an arrest raid early Sunday. During the raid, their forces were attacked with roadside bombs, rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire, the British said. The troops returned fire, killing three of their attackers and arresting four militants. No British forces were injured.
Meanwhile, in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, 70 police officers resigned Sunday morning and handed over their weapons. They cited their fears of being targeted by Mahdi Army militants, police said.
On Sunday, gunmen in two cars threw concussion grenades at a popular market in northern Baghdad and then opened fire at shoppers, killing one person and injuring eight, police said. The gunmen later ambushed a minibus, killing the driver, stealing the vehicle and abducting six passengers, police said.
In other violence, gunmen shot up the car of Lt. Col. Hiyis al-Jubouri, a police commander in the northern Salahuddin province, killing him and another police officer, police said.
Gunmen also attacked a group of farmers in the al-Nahrawan district, 10 miles east of Baghdad, killing two and injuring nine, police said.
The U.S. military also reported late Saturday the deaths of eight U.S. troops, bringing the number of soldiers killed so far this month to at least 100 and putting May on pace to become the deadliest month for U.S. troops here in more than 2 1/2 years.
On Monday, Iranian and U.S. diplomats were scheduled to hold rare talks in Baghdad over how to end the violence in Iraq. U.S. officials accuse Shiite-ruled Iran of training, financing and arming militants here, in a bid to fan sectarian tensions. Iran denies that and blames the presence of U.S. forces here for the violence.
___
Associated Press report Robert Burns contributed to this story from Washington.
Typos are not sin, lighten up.
This just proves further that we need to re-deploy our forces away from Iraq so that they can go fight Al Qaeda.
I don’t watch CNN, but I looked at their website. I might have to reboot
Can’t be! Just a civil war going on there!
The Surge is Working
More and more good news although hidden by PravdABDNC is coming out in Baghdad. The worm appears to have turned.
Pray for W and Our Heroic Troops
Drawings, tools seized from Iraq safe house in U.S. military raid
MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal." Along with the images, which you'll find on the following pages, soldiers seized various torture implements, like meat cleavers, whips, and wire cutters. Photos of those items can be seen here. The images, which were just declassified by the Department of Defense, also include a picture of a ramshackle Baghdad safe house described as an "al-Qaeda torture chamber." It was there, during an April 24 raid, that soldiers found a man suspended from the ceiling by a chain. According to the military, he had been abducted from his job and was being beaten daily by his captors. In a raid earlier this week, Coalition Forces freed five Iraqis who were found in a padlocked room in Karmah. The group, which included a boy, were reportedly beaten with chains, cables, and hoses. Photos showing injuries sustained by those captives can be found here. (12 pages)
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MEL’s -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
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Guaranteed that those are 42 Iraqis who love Americans.
That was my thought too. They should do a quick poll and find 42 Iraqis and ask them what they think of America. I think that is a fair poll since they try to spin polls anyway. I think we should get some good news polls for a change.
Has anyone heard Moveon, or the Dems,or Murtha, or Obama, or Hitlery etc., say a word of condemnation of Al Quaida, who glory in War Crimes, whilst the smallest failing of the US must be criticised, raked over, grovellingly, and continuously appologised for?
What hypocrites these Dem/Commie/Mussies are.
Obviously the US needs to retreat its way to victory, just like F Troop.
So true
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