US troops hunt Saddam loyalists as soldier killed

US TROOPS scoured a remote region north of Baghdad yesterday in a bid to track down guerrillas loyal to Saddam Hussein as one US soldier was killed and two wounded.

Three other soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a combined bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attack yesterday near the town of Shumayt, north of Tikrit.

In Baghdad, US soldiers said three Iraqis had been killed after an American convoy was attacked with a grenade. One bloodstained body lay at the scene with at least three bullet wounds. Weeping relatives knelt down to kiss the corpse.

A US soldier said the Iraqis involved in the attack had been chased down and shot. But locals said the dead were innocent bystanders, and accused US troops of firing wildly.

Guerrilla attacks have killed 56 US soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. Most of the attacks have been concentrated in Baghdad and in the “Sunni triangle” north and west of the capital.

The 4th Infantry Division said it had launched a new mission, Operation Ivy Lightning, to hunt for Saddam loyalists it believed had fled to isolated villages east of Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit to escape repeated US raids.

Saddam remains on the run despite a $25 million price on his head and the killing of his sons Uday and Qusay in a US raid last month on their hideout in the northern city of Mosul.

Major Josslyn Aberle in Tikrit said Operation Ivy Lightning had no specific human target.

“We are looking for mid-level people who were organising to attack coalition forces, who were watching and observing us, and needed to be stopped,” she said, adding that 12 people had been detained so far and were being questioned.

Violence also erupted in the southern Shi'ite city of Basra at the weekend. Residents angry at shortages of power and fuel barricaded roads with burning tyres and attacked vehicles with chunks of concrete. British and Czech troops in the city fired warning shots, and in one incident returned fire at protesters.

One Iraqi was killed by gunfire during Sunday’s unrest, but it was not clear who fired the shots. Another Iraqi was crushed to death under the wheels of a truck. A Nepalese Gurkha working as a private security guard was also killed, shot by gunmen as he drove through Basra delivering mail for the United Nations.

The city was calmer yesterday but electricity was still off for most of the day, leaving residents at the mercy of searing summer temperatures. British forces distributed fuel to gas stations in 25 tankers. Iraqis who had queued for hours to fill their tanks clapped and cheered as the supplies arrived. But some were furious at rationing that restricted fuel supplies.

Officials in Iraq’s US-led administration say the frequent power cuts are due to sabotage of cables linking Basra to the national grid and equipment breakdowns at decrepit power stations. They say sabotage of pipelines and rampant oil smuggling have led to the shortage of fuel.

Two Iraqis were slightly wounded overnight in Baghdad when grenades were hurled at two trucks driving near the British embassy, the US military said. “The attack was in the vicinity of the British embassy but it did not target in any way the embassy,” a spokesman said.