US takes 260 prisoners in Iraq raid

HEAVILY-ARMED US Army forces stormed into a village near the northern city of Tikrit before dawn yesterday, seizing more than 260 prisoners, including one man on the most-wanted list of former Iraqi officials.

US troops encountered no resistance during the five-hour sweep, officers said. About 230 of those detained were being released later in the day, the military said.

Elsewhere, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division shot and wounded a looter in Mosul after being fired upon, US military officials said. The shooting came a day after military officials, who had been criticised about the continued lawlessness in Iraq, denied issuing a shoot-on-sight policy against looters.