'Sunni Triangle' riots after Saddam's capture

Saddam Hussein loyalists rioted in Baghdad, ambushed a US patrol in Samarra, stormed the office of a US-backed mayor in Fallujah and battled American troops in Ramadi as cities in Iraq’s “Sunni Triangle” region seethed over the ex-dictator’s capture.

As soldiers fought off angry protesters and guerrilla attacks on Monday night and yesterday, the 4th Infantry Division said it had snared a leader of the uprising and 78 other people in a raid north of Baghdad, not far from where Saddam was captured three days earlier.

A roadside bomb wounded three American soldiers in Saddam’s home town of Tikrit, and a pro-Saddam demonstration in the northern city of Mosul ended in violence, with a policeman killed and a second injured.

In Washington, US president George Bush said Saddam deserved the “ultimate penalty” but it would be up to the people of Iraq to decide whether he should be executed. In an interview with ABC News, the president also said Iraqis were “capable of conducting the trial themselves”.

The United Nations, the Vatican and many countries worldwide – especially in Europe – oppose putting Saddam on trial before any court that could sentence him to death.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Richard Myers, said in Baghdad yesterday that military planners were preparing for American troops to stay in Iraq for up to two more years despite capturing the former Iraqi leader.

The 4th Infantry Division raid in the village of Abu Safa, near Samarra and about 60 miles north of Baghdad, began late on Monday after fighters in Samarra ambushed US forces. The US military said its troops killed 11 of the attackers, who released a flock of pigeons to signal one another that the American patrol was in range. No Americans were hurt.

By early yesterday, US troops arrested Qais Hattam, the No 5 fugitive on the 4th Infantry’s list of “high value targets”, said Capt Gaven Gregory of the division’s 3rd Brigade. The guerrilla leader was described as a major financier of rebels who have been fighting the US-led coalition for months.

Maj Josslyn Aberle, spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry, said all those captured in the raid were in one room and apparently conducting a meeting to plan future attacks.

She said US forces also seized a substantial weapons cache.

“We got a significant amount of ammunition and weapons, perfect material for making IEDs (roadside bombs),” Aberle told CNN.

Hattam is not on the US list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis. Thirteen fugitives from that list remain at large.

Today, the 4th Infantry said it had started a new series of raids, dubbed Operation Ivy Blizzard, in Samarra along with Iraqi security forces.

A written statement from the division said the sweep was requested by local leaders and that it would “target, isolate and eliminate former regime elements and other anti-coalition cells”.