Seraphim
07-14-2003, 05:47 AM
http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?vts=071420030240
http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/63d5d06435c05d/www.msnbc.com/news/1954689.jpg
U.S. soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division detain and cover the heads of all the men in the village of Mishahdah, Iraq, part of Operation Ivy Serpent, on Sunday.
BALAD, Iraq, July 14 — One soldier was killed and six wounded in an attack by insurgents firing multiple rocket-propelled grenades at their convoy early Monday, said Spc. Giovanni Llorente, a military spokesman. Earlier, American forces killed four suspected pro-Saddam insurgents and arrested more than 50 people as they launched a fourth major offensive in central Iraq, an operation meant to blunt expected attacks on U.S. soldiers, military officials said.
THE WOUNDED WERE brought to a military hospital. Also Monday, the military said a marine in southern Iraq died in a non-hostile incident. It provided no details.
The violence followed an apparent failed car-bombing Monday night on a police station full of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police, local police said.
A white Volkswagen was destroyed and a badly mangled and headless body lay nearby, said police Sgt. Adel Shakir. He said the body was thought to have been one of two men who were attempting to get the explosive-packed car near the station.
Anti-U.S. attacks will be timed with upcoming holidays that mark major events in the history of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, officials said.
The Army’s 4th Infantry Division launched operation “Ivy Serpent” Saturday night with a series of raids on suspected pro-Saddam holdouts, sweeping illegal weapons markets in the Baqouba and Balad on the Tigris River north of the capital and setting up checkpoints.
“We’re going offensive to disrupt potential attacks against us by Baathists and former Fedayeen elements,” said Colonel David Hogg, a commander of the 4th Infantry’s 2nd Brigade.
‘NOT GOING TO SUCCEED’
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took note Sunday of the instability in Iraq, and the potential for more unrest.
“There’s still a lot of people from the Ba’athists and Fedayeen, Saddam regime types who are there, who are disadvantaged by the fact that their regime has been thrown out, and would like to get back,” Rumsfeld said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But they’re not going to succeed.”
Rumsfeld, responding to questions from NBC’s Tim Russert, said resistance to U.S. forces “is coordinated in regions and areas, cities, in the north particularly. To what extent is it organized throughout the country, I think there isn’t any conviction about that yet.
“We do know that there are a lot, thousands of people, Iraqis, who had a very good deal during the Saddam Hussein regime,” Rumsfeld said.
Hogg said two homes used to produce anti-U.S. propaganda were raided and that American forces came under rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire in a sweep through seven locations in Diala Province, northeast of Baghdad.
Hogg said U.S. forces captured three wanted men — a former Fedayeen general, a former Iraqi air force general and the second in charge of the Baath party in Diala Province. He would not give their names.
‘SUNNI TRIANGLE’
Since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 31 U.S. soldiers have been killed by enemy forces and scores have been wounded in hit-and-run attacks.
Most attacks have taken place in Baghdad and traditionally pro-Saddam Sunni Arab strongholds of central Iraq, known as the “Sunni Triangle.”
Warnings of attacks have mentioned uprisings in Hawijah, Baji, Kirkuk, Samarra and Balad. American forces said they believed the best defense was to launch a pre-holiday move against potential insurgents.
“The goal is to knock the Baath Party and the Wahhabi elements off balance,” said Lt. Col. Nat Sassaman, a Balad-area battalion commander. Wahhabism is the fundamentalist type of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Army officers say many of the attacks in the past were carried out by aimless young men paid about $153 by former regime security officials. The 4th Infantry’s 3rd Brigade has begun offering $250 rewards for usable intelligence and $100 rewards for information leading to weapons caches.
EARLY-WARNING SYSTEM
America’s elusive enemy in Iraq appears to have some level of organization. Using flares and small-arms fire, they have a developed a system to notify one another when the Americans are entering an area.
The three previous anti-insurgency operations — Peninsula Strike, Desert Scorpion and Sidewinder — yielded mixed results.
Hundreds of suspects were arrested, but many were released for lack of evidence. Numerous caches of weapons were discovered, but the attacks against Americans continued.
Operations often have taken place in the dead of night with teams of scouts conducting reconnaissance, tanks establishing security cordons and quick-action infantrymen with night-vision goggles storming suspected locations. But the start of Ivy Serpent — expected to last at least a few days — coincided with a full moon taking away some of the advantage the Americans have in the dark, U.S. military officials said.
PULLBACK IN FALLUJAH
‘We are sure that Iraqi police will treat people with respect. People abide by the orders of Iraqi police.’
— HAMED AL-KUBEISI
Iraqi shop owner In another sign of America’s emerging attitude of compromise, the military said Saturday it was sharply cutting back its presence in Fallujah at the request of police and the U.S.-appointed mayor after several attacks in the town by Saddam loyalists.
Police in the city demanded Thursday that American forces withdraw from their station, saying they feared being caught in the cross hairs if insurgents attacked again. Americans went one step further, turning the entire city of 200,000 over to the Iraqi forces.
Iraqi police were widely deployed on the roads and downtown. Some of them were directing traffic while others protected government buildings.
In a statement, the military said it would “allow the Fallujah police to patrol the streets themselves instead of jointly with military police.” It said it would keep a quick-reaction team on call in case the police needed help.
People in Fallujah said they were pleased with the American pullout.
“The American decision to withdraw is a good step and we have the capabilities to protect the city,” policeman Walid Jasim said.
Hamed al-Kubeisi, a 39-year-old shop owner, said: “We are sure that Iraqi police will treat people with respect. People abide by the orders of Iraqi police.”
Despite the announcement, an AP reporter in the town saw 10 American patrols as well as six U.S. Humvees and soldiers outside the office of Mayor Taha Bedewi. Bedewi insisted, however, that the Americans were in town to discuss reconstruction and that he was being protected by Iraqi police.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
A group claiming to be linked to the al Qaeda network said in an audio tape aired on an Arab television station on Sunday that they and not the followers of Saddam Hussein were behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. The voice on the tape, which Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired along with a photograph of an unidentified white-bearded man wearing a turban, also warned of a new anti-U.S. attack in the days to come which would “break the back of America completely.” It was not clear if he was referring to an attack in Iraq or somewhere else. The voice said the “Armed Islamic Movement for Al Qaeda, the Falluja Branch” — a previously unheard-of organization — was behind the attacks in Iraq and that its members were dispersed all over Iraq.
Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is overseeing Iraq’s Interior Ministry, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested five former members of Saddam’s personal security forces, four of whom were cousins of the former dictator. Authorities seized pictures that showed the four cousins torturing an unidentified man, Kerik said. Kerik also appealed Saturday to former Iraqi police officers dismissed on political grounds in the last 10 years to apply for reinstatement. He said those under 45 years of age should apply at police stations from Aug. 15 to Nov. 1.
The military reported that one soldier of the 4th Infantry died and a second was wounded in “a non-hostile gunshot incident.” No details were available.
U.S. military police securing a prison west of Baghdad came under attack early Saturday, but no casualties were reported, said Cpl. Todd Pruden, a U.S. military spokesman.
A U.S.-appointed city council took office in Baqouba, a city northeast of Baghdad that has been the site of attacks on coalition forces.
http://a799.g.akamai.net/3/799/388/63d5d06435c05d/www.msnbc.com/news/1954689.jpg
U.S. soldiers from the Fourth Infantry Division detain and cover the heads of all the men in the village of Mishahdah, Iraq, part of Operation Ivy Serpent, on Sunday.
BALAD, Iraq, July 14 — One soldier was killed and six wounded in an attack by insurgents firing multiple rocket-propelled grenades at their convoy early Monday, said Spc. Giovanni Llorente, a military spokesman. Earlier, American forces killed four suspected pro-Saddam insurgents and arrested more than 50 people as they launched a fourth major offensive in central Iraq, an operation meant to blunt expected attacks on U.S. soldiers, military officials said.
THE WOUNDED WERE brought to a military hospital. Also Monday, the military said a marine in southern Iraq died in a non-hostile incident. It provided no details.
The violence followed an apparent failed car-bombing Monday night on a police station full of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police, local police said.
A white Volkswagen was destroyed and a badly mangled and headless body lay nearby, said police Sgt. Adel Shakir. He said the body was thought to have been one of two men who were attempting to get the explosive-packed car near the station.
Anti-U.S. attacks will be timed with upcoming holidays that mark major events in the history of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, officials said.
The Army’s 4th Infantry Division launched operation “Ivy Serpent” Saturday night with a series of raids on suspected pro-Saddam holdouts, sweeping illegal weapons markets in the Baqouba and Balad on the Tigris River north of the capital and setting up checkpoints.
“We’re going offensive to disrupt potential attacks against us by Baathists and former Fedayeen elements,” said Colonel David Hogg, a commander of the 4th Infantry’s 2nd Brigade.
‘NOT GOING TO SUCCEED’
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took note Sunday of the instability in Iraq, and the potential for more unrest.
“There’s still a lot of people from the Ba’athists and Fedayeen, Saddam regime types who are there, who are disadvantaged by the fact that their regime has been thrown out, and would like to get back,” Rumsfeld said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “But they’re not going to succeed.”
Rumsfeld, responding to questions from NBC’s Tim Russert, said resistance to U.S. forces “is coordinated in regions and areas, cities, in the north particularly. To what extent is it organized throughout the country, I think there isn’t any conviction about that yet.
“We do know that there are a lot, thousands of people, Iraqis, who had a very good deal during the Saddam Hussein regime,” Rumsfeld said.
Hogg said two homes used to produce anti-U.S. propaganda were raided and that American forces came under rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire in a sweep through seven locations in Diala Province, northeast of Baghdad.
Hogg said U.S. forces captured three wanted men — a former Fedayeen general, a former Iraqi air force general and the second in charge of the Baath party in Diala Province. He would not give their names.
‘SUNNI TRIANGLE’
Since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 31 U.S. soldiers have been killed by enemy forces and scores have been wounded in hit-and-run attacks.
Most attacks have taken place in Baghdad and traditionally pro-Saddam Sunni Arab strongholds of central Iraq, known as the “Sunni Triangle.”
Warnings of attacks have mentioned uprisings in Hawijah, Baji, Kirkuk, Samarra and Balad. American forces said they believed the best defense was to launch a pre-holiday move against potential insurgents.
“The goal is to knock the Baath Party and the Wahhabi elements off balance,” said Lt. Col. Nat Sassaman, a Balad-area battalion commander. Wahhabism is the fundamentalist type of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Army officers say many of the attacks in the past were carried out by aimless young men paid about $153 by former regime security officials. The 4th Infantry’s 3rd Brigade has begun offering $250 rewards for usable intelligence and $100 rewards for information leading to weapons caches.
EARLY-WARNING SYSTEM
America’s elusive enemy in Iraq appears to have some level of organization. Using flares and small-arms fire, they have a developed a system to notify one another when the Americans are entering an area.
The three previous anti-insurgency operations — Peninsula Strike, Desert Scorpion and Sidewinder — yielded mixed results.
Hundreds of suspects were arrested, but many were released for lack of evidence. Numerous caches of weapons were discovered, but the attacks against Americans continued.
Operations often have taken place in the dead of night with teams of scouts conducting reconnaissance, tanks establishing security cordons and quick-action infantrymen with night-vision goggles storming suspected locations. But the start of Ivy Serpent — expected to last at least a few days — coincided with a full moon taking away some of the advantage the Americans have in the dark, U.S. military officials said.
PULLBACK IN FALLUJAH
‘We are sure that Iraqi police will treat people with respect. People abide by the orders of Iraqi police.’
— HAMED AL-KUBEISI
Iraqi shop owner In another sign of America’s emerging attitude of compromise, the military said Saturday it was sharply cutting back its presence in Fallujah at the request of police and the U.S.-appointed mayor after several attacks in the town by Saddam loyalists.
Police in the city demanded Thursday that American forces withdraw from their station, saying they feared being caught in the cross hairs if insurgents attacked again. Americans went one step further, turning the entire city of 200,000 over to the Iraqi forces.
Iraqi police were widely deployed on the roads and downtown. Some of them were directing traffic while others protected government buildings.
In a statement, the military said it would “allow the Fallujah police to patrol the streets themselves instead of jointly with military police.” It said it would keep a quick-reaction team on call in case the police needed help.
People in Fallujah said they were pleased with the American pullout.
“The American decision to withdraw is a good step and we have the capabilities to protect the city,” policeman Walid Jasim said.
Hamed al-Kubeisi, a 39-year-old shop owner, said: “We are sure that Iraqi police will treat people with respect. People abide by the orders of Iraqi police.”
Despite the announcement, an AP reporter in the town saw 10 American patrols as well as six U.S. Humvees and soldiers outside the office of Mayor Taha Bedewi. Bedewi insisted, however, that the Americans were in town to discuss reconstruction and that he was being protected by Iraqi police.
IN OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
A group claiming to be linked to the al Qaeda network said in an audio tape aired on an Arab television station on Sunday that they and not the followers of Saddam Hussein were behind attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. The voice on the tape, which Dubai-based Al Arabiya television aired along with a photograph of an unidentified white-bearded man wearing a turban, also warned of a new anti-U.S. attack in the days to come which would “break the back of America completely.” It was not clear if he was referring to an attack in Iraq or somewhere else. The voice said the “Armed Islamic Movement for Al Qaeda, the Falluja Branch” — a previously unheard-of organization — was behind the attacks in Iraq and that its members were dispersed all over Iraq.
Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who is overseeing Iraq’s Interior Ministry, said U.S. and Iraqi forces had arrested five former members of Saddam’s personal security forces, four of whom were cousins of the former dictator. Authorities seized pictures that showed the four cousins torturing an unidentified man, Kerik said. Kerik also appealed Saturday to former Iraqi police officers dismissed on political grounds in the last 10 years to apply for reinstatement. He said those under 45 years of age should apply at police stations from Aug. 15 to Nov. 1.
The military reported that one soldier of the 4th Infantry died and a second was wounded in “a non-hostile gunshot incident.” No details were available.
U.S. military police securing a prison west of Baghdad came under attack early Saturday, but no casualties were reported, said Cpl. Todd Pruden, a U.S. military spokesman.
A U.S.-appointed city council took office in Baqouba, a city northeast of Baghdad that has been the site of attacks on coalition forces.