Posted on 05/02/2003 6:25:59 AM PDT by Clive
TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) - U.S. soldiers raided a dozen buildings in Saddam Hussein's home town Friday, killing one Iraqi and detaining about 20. U.S. officials also announced the capture in Baghdad of one of Saddam's most trusted aides.
The aide, Mizban Khadr Hadi, was a member of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council and had been an adviser to Saddam since the early 1980s. Captured Thursday, Hadi was ranked No. 41 on the U.S. most-wanted list of 55 regime leaders. Even with U.S. President George W. Bush declaring an end to "major combat operations," the raid in Tikrit was the latest of many signs that daunting challenges remain for American forces in Iraq.
Almost daily, U.S. troops exchange gunfire with Iraqis, sometimes as a result of anti-American protests. Lawlessness is rampant, in a land abounding with well-armed citizens and divided loyalties.
Tikrit, the stronghold of Saddam's al-Tikriti clan, has been a centre of pro-regime sentiment even as the former government collapsed. U.S. officers say members of Saddam's Baath party are trying to reorganize to stage attacks on American troops, and one of the men detained Friday was described as a party official.
"Some of these guys are continuing to terrorize people out there, and that's going to take a while to work through," said Lt.-Col. Phil Battaglia, commander of the infantry regiment that conducted the raid.
During the raid, troops found several weapons and about $3,000 US hidden in various houses, and one Iraqi was killed when he tried to wrest a rifle from an American soldier, U.S. officers said.
The raid, the second in Tikrit in as many days, began shortly after midnight when six Bradley Fighting Vehicles sealed off a residential district. Soldiers broke down gates and doors, forced their way inside and emerged with about 20 men, blindfolded and hands tied behind their backs.
The U.S. military provided few details about the capture of Hadi, who had been promoted by Saddam in March to command military defence in the area that included the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. He has been a minister without portfolio since 1982 and was decorated by Saddam for his services during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and a month-long Shiite rebellion that followed Iraq's defeat.
No new violence was reported Friday in Fallujah, where seven U.S. soldiers were wounded Thursday in a grenade attack.
That attack was in apparent retaliation for U.S. gunfire earlier in the week that killed 18 people, according to local hospital officials. U.S. officers said their soldiers were defending themselves after being shot at, while residents said the victims were unarmed protesters.
Even a leader of the temporary city administration spoke harshly of the U.S. troops in Fallujah, a Baath party stronghold 48 kilometres west of Baghdad.
"After the massacre, we don't believe the Americans came to free us, but to occupy and take our wealth and kill us," said Mohammed Farhan, who is in charge of city security.
One of the U.S. soldiers deployed in Fallujah died Thursday, but not in hostilities. Army officials said the soldier from the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment - whose name was not released - drowned when a tank plunged into a canal.
In another incident Thursday, an Apache helicopter destroyed a truck after a U.S. drone aircraft spotted four men loading ammunition onto the vehicle on the east side of the Tigris River. The four Iraqis were killed, according to Col. Don Campbell of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade.
After the attack, 13 Iraqis came to the area and were seen loading ammunition onto other vehicles. Apaches fired on a building where the men took refuge, triggering secondary explosions that suggested ammunition was stored inside, Campbell said.
In Baghdad, elation turned to chaos when a large propane tank exploded while people fired guns in the air to celebrate the return of electricity to their neighbourhood. U.S. soldiers who arrived in tanks were confronted by an angry crowd complaining that the troops should have done more to help those injured by the explosion.
President Bush, in his speech Thursday aboard an aircraft carrier returning from the war, said much still needed to be done in Iraq, including restoring order, establishing a democratic government, tracking down Saddam and his top aides, and finding weapons of mass destruction.
Thus far, the U.S. government has rejected proposals to let United Nations weapons inspectors assist the U.S. teams that are searching Iraq for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
However, other UN staff have returned to Baghdad for the first time since the war to assess emergency humanitarian needs. A 21-member team that arrived Thursday included representatives of the World Health Organization, the World Food Program, the UN Children's Fund and the UN Development Program.
Secretary General Kofi Annan ordered all UN international staff to leave Iraq on March 17, just before U.S.-led forces invaded the country.
On a humanitarian mission, a Virgin Atlantic Airways jumbo jet on Friday became the first commercial airliner to land in Iraq since the war. With the airline's CEO, Sir Richard Branson, aboard, the Boeing 747 flew into the southern city of Basra with 60 tonnes of medical supplies, including incubators, defibrillators, and drugs for tuberculosis, blood pressure and heart disease.
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