US hunting Saddam loyalists

US troops were on the offensive inside Iraq today – hunting Saddam Hussein loyalists in a bid to curb a wave of attacks on coalition soldiers.

The sweep, dubbed operation Sidewinder, has netted at least 60 suspects in 20 lightning raids across central Iraq.

Iraqi dissidents hit back today. A rocket propelled grenade hit military vehicle in the restive town of Fallujah, injuring an “embedded” US TV soundman.

Three Iraqis were killed when their pick-up truck slammed into a vehicle helping evacuate the wounded reporter.

Elsewhere there was embarrassment for the Americans, when they arrested the mayor of the southern Shiite city of Najaf whom they had appointed at the fall of Saddam’s regime.

And five Syrian border guards, injured in a border shoot-out with US troops on June 18 and taken to an American field hospital, were returned.

In today’s attack in Fallujah, the rocket-propelled grenade hit an Avenger air defence vehicle – a Humvee equipped with a missile launcher – injuring the NBC technician who was travelling in the vehicle but leaving the soldiers unscathed, said US Central Command.

The injured man was Australian Jeremy Little who had serious but not life threatening injuries.

“Shortly after the attack, while soldiers were securing the area and treating the civilian reporter, a white pick-up truck with its headlights off was spotted travelling along the highway toward the Avenger,” said Central Command.

The pickup truck slammed into an armoured personnel carrier that was on the scene of the ambush to help evacuate any casualties.

Two of the pickup truck’s civilian occupants died immediately. The other died later from his wounds.

Zoheir Ali said his son-in-law was among the three killed in the pick-up truck.

He said his son-in-law, Qahtan Hashem, was driving two neighbours – a son and his sick father – to hospital and was rushing to beat an 11 pm curfew. Ali said he believed Hashem did not notice the vehicles on the road.

Operation Sidewinder began on Sunday and as part of the sweep, troops detained a colonel from Saddam’s Baath Party along with five other individuals, a military statement said Monday, without providing details.

At least 319 Iraqis have been detained in several operations, including Sidewinder, across Iraq since Sunday.

Sidewinder is taking place across an area of central Iraq stretching from the Iranian border to the areas north of Baghdad, and is expected to last for several days.

The region has become “the nexus of paramilitary activity in central Iraq,” the military said in a statement.

The military said the raids targeted loyalists from Saddam’s former Baath Party, as well as “terrorists suspected of perpetrating attacks against US forces and former Iraqi military leaders.”

London-based human rights group Amnesty International said it has gathered evidence that points to US violations of international law by subjecting Iraqi prisoners to “cruel, inhuman or degrading” conditions at its detention centres here.

The group said in a report that hundreds of Iraqis held at US run tent camps and former Iraqi government prisons have been denied the right to see families or lawyers or have a judge review their detention.

In Najaf today, American troops arrested the US appointed mayor, accusing him of kidnapping and corruption and also held 62 of his top aides.

Abu Haydar Abdul Mun’im was installed by the Americans shortly after they entered this city in April, but the former Iraqi army colonel was unpopular among the local population because of his military background.

In addition to kidnapping, Mun’im stands accused of holding hostages, pressuring government employees to commit financial crimes, and attacking a bank official.

In recent weeks, residents of Najaf, 110 miles south-west of Baghdad, have held demonstrations against Mun’im, accusing him of links to the Baath Party of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

His arrest was expected to be met with satisfaction in the town.

The US has repatriated five wounded Syrian border guards injured during a recent battle on the Iraqi border that threatened to further strain already tense Washington-Damascus relations.

The hand over, which the US embassy in Damascus said took place on Sunday, followed tight-lipped negotiations between Syrian and American officials over the fate of the five guards.

The move is likely to settle tensions that had heightened between both countries following US claims during the war in Iraq that Syria was aiding fleeing officials from Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime.

The five guards were injured when an air force gunship, helicopters and ground forces attacked a convoy of vehicles thought to be carrying escaping Iraqi officials near the border town of Abu Kamal. The border area is known as a smuggler’s haven.