US troops capture 60 after overnight battle

Nearly 60 Iraqi people were captured by US troops following a battle against Saddam Hussein loyalists near the ousted dictator’s hometown of Tikrit, the military said.

The overnight fighting on Thursday and yesterday followed a series of ambushes which the US military described as some of the fiercest and best co-ordinated attacks by the insurgents in months.

Three US soldiers were killed and two others wounded in the ambushes, the military said yesterday.

Today, US tanks and armoured fighting vehicles rumbled through Tikrit and its outskirts in a show of force following Thursday’s attacks.

The patrol began late yesterday and ended early today. Except for the display of firepower, it was also aimed at flushing out any pockets of armed resistance in the area.

Thursday night’s attack began as soldiers were sealing off parts of the nearby village of Uja, where Saddam was born, to conduct a raid against Iraqi resistance cells. Gunmen in a white pick-up truck opened fire on an observation post, followed by a deadly rocket and small arms attack on a patrol, which caused the casualties.

Insurgents also launched almost simultaneous attacks against two nearby bases using rocket propelled grenades, small arms and heavy machine guns. The Americans responded with armoured vehicles, attack helicopter and mechanised infantry gunfire in fighting that lasted until dawn, according to Colonel James Hickey of the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade.

He said 58 Iraqi men of “military age” were captured, including those believed involved in the attack on the patrol. He said the attacks showed remarkable co-ordination.

In new fighting yesterday, US soldiers blew the gate off a wall at the Saddam mosque compound in Tikrit after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from somewhere in the vicinity, imam Yehiya Ibrahim told The Associated Press.

Although US troops come under attack frequently in Tikrit, Colonel Hickey said the overnight attacks were unusual because of the intensity and length.

“We have seen instances of co-ordinated attacks two times in the past out of the scores of ambushes,” he said. “But this one was co-ordinated and is something that is worrying us and we are paying attention to it.”

Colonel Hickey said the military had received some warning that an attack was imminent and had increased its alert level. He said the large number of Iraqis detained was a direct consequence of the warning.

“Our reaction was faster than anticipated. They were sealed off,” he said.

The attackers, he added, were what remained of Saddam loyalists carrying out attacks in the area.

“It’s a handful, a rearguard that’s attempting to maintain a degree of political relevance here. We’re going to finish these guys off,” he said.

In Rome yesterday, an Italian Foreign Ministry official said US soldiers in northern Iraq fired into a car carrying the Italian official heading US efforts to recover looted antiquities, killing the man’s Iraqi interpreter.

The Italian, Pietro Cordone, was slightly injured in the shooting at a roadblock between Mosul and Tikrit on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry official said.

The official said it appeared the car’s driver did not understand the signals that the American troops were giving, and that the soldiers didn’t understand what the car was trying to do.

In Baghdad, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo said he had received only “sketchy, initial reports” about the incident and expected to comment in full later.