US troops conduct dawn raid on Saddam's town

Dozens of US troops raided homes near Tikrit’s infamous “RPG Alley” today and arrested five men thought to be involved in bankrolling attacks against American troops in Saddam Hussein’s home town.

The pre-dawn raid was carried out against three homes located next to a main road which has seen 20 attacks with rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, against the US military in the past two weeks.

In the most recent attack Saturday, a guerrilla in a taxi fired a rocket propelled grenade at an American convoy in downtown Tikrit, killing an Iraqi bystander and injuring two people.

The raids netted a figure allegedly involved in helping finance attacks by Fedayeen guerrillas and four others closely associated with him, the military said.

“These individuals are involved in financing Fedayeen activity and organising cells of resistance against US forces,” Maj Bryan Luke of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, who led the raid, said.

The troops, backed up by Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees and troops in a five-ton truck, wove through central Tikrit’s back alleys without headlights, surrounding the homes before troops used metal rams to knock down their front doors.

The 3am raid also netted a number of assault rifles, pieces of an RPG and ammunition. All three of the houses raided were owned by one of the people detained. It also turned up three taxis.

As the raid took place, heavy mortars could be heard booming in the distance as a show of force by American troops.

US troops carry out numerous raids in and around Tikrit in an effort to arrest Saddam loyalists and restore a semblance of security to the city.

They are sometimes joined by Iraqi police and in one such raid yesterday arrested seven men suspected of being members of a gang responsible for kidnappings, robberies and carjackings along the main road to northern Iraq.

The dawn raid about 19 miles north east of Tikrit involved more than 100 Iraqi security forces and US Army military police.