[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I saw that...... seems like the militants were protecting some HMT.... so who might it have been???

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Buried in the Reuters report just above we have this:

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In other developments, Iraqi and US forces pressed ahead with some of their most agressive action against the insurgency in months.

US troops battled rebels in the northern town of Tall Afar for a second day while Iraqi and US forces arrested 500 suspected militants in the heartland of the Sunni Muslim insurgency.

Iraqi police and national guardsmen, assisted by US forces, raided the town of Latifiya, 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Baghdad, marking the first time the interim government has taken decisive action against a Sunni Muslim stronghold since it was sworn in on June 28.

Twelve policemen were killed and 17 people wounded in the operation, with 500 suspected "terrorists" arrested and a large haul of weapons seized, including five barrels of TNT, an Iraqi intelligence officer said.

The town is part of a virtual no-go zone for US troops, Iraqi police and foreigners and has earned the name "Fallujah's second head" after the Sunni rebel strongold west of Baghdad.

The spot is where two French journalists, held by a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq, disappeared on August 20.

500 arrested?.........

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.Could we be the final stages of really taking out the final remaining fighters?????

Perhaps we now have enough human intelligence that we can set traps and capture them where they are congregating....???

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

HMT should be HVT...High Value Targets....

Sorry!!!

[Allegra]

Could we be the final stages of really taking out the final remaining fighters?????

Perhaps we now have enough human intelligence that we can set traps and capture them where they are congregating....???

From your lips to God's ears...

[TexKat]

After giving this entire story some thought and research I began to doubt the whole thing due to there not being any other account of the so called opertion going on in Tikrit and no pictures other than older photos of al-Douri

Iraq national guard commander denies capture of Saddam deputy

A senior commander in the Iraqi national guard has insisted his officers have not captured Saddam Hussein's deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri.

Major General Ahmed Khalaf Salman, who is commander for the central region where the capture reportedly took place, says the guardsmen were wrong to announce they had apprehended him or participated in any such operation.

He says Iraqi forces did not take part in any operation and did not capture al-Duri.

Earlier, Iraqi officials said Ibrahim was captured in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown and powerbase north of Baghdad, in which 70 of his supporters were reportedly killed and 80 captured.

06/09/2004 01:53:18 | ABC Radio Australia News