Soldiers Arrest 34 in Northern Iraq Raid

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A massive U.S. raid in a northern Iraq village led to the arrests of 34 people and the confiscation of dozens of guns, the American military said Wednesday. Residents accused soldiers of excessive force.

Initial reports said the troops were hunting for Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a top ally of Saddam Hussein who is considered a key planner of recent attacks. U.S. officials, who have posted a $10 million bounty for al-Douri, suspect he could also be working with the al-Qaida-linked militant group Ansar al-Islam.

Although U.S. forces have been searching for al-Douri, "we did not come here specifically searching for him," Lt. Col. William Schafer said.

"This raid has been planned for a while," Schafer said in Kirkuk. "We came with a list of names of people who have attacked coalition forces."

The U.S. military said it detained 34 people and confiscated 70 small arms and six rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the raid in Hawija, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Alaa Hosein, a 22-year old farmer interviewed in a Kirkuk hospital, said he and his cousin were returning from their fields when soldiers opened fire. Hosein was hit in the right leg, while his cousin was critically injured in the head.

South of Kirkuk, insurgents ambushed a convoy of civilian contractors near Samarra, the military said. Two of the occupants were slightly injured when a roadside bomb went off near their vehicle. Samarra was the scene of an intense weekend battle between Americans and Iraqi insurgents.

On Tuesday, a U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside explosion in Samarra. His death brought to 441 the number of U.S. servicemen who have died in Iraq since the start of the war on March 20.

At the town of Najaf, 50 miles south of Baghdad, Honduran troops serving with the coalition were attacked with mortar fire early Wednesday, the military said. There were no casualties among the 360 Honduran soldiers and no damage to the base.

In Baghdad, relatives of U.S. troops visiting Iraq pressed their agenda to meet with leaders of the coalition authority, hoping to voice opposition to the U.S.-led occupation. They will also visit hospitals, schools and U.S. military bases as part of the trip sponsored by Global Exchange and the International Occupation Watch Center.

One mother held back tears while looking at U.S. soldiers guarding the entrance of the Habbaniyah military base in Baghdad.

"They are so young. This is not for them. ... They look just like my boy," said Annabelle Valencia, whose 24-year-old daughter and 22-year-old son are both based in Iraq.

In the capital, workers used a construction crane to remove the 13-foot-tall heads of Saddam from his former Republican Palace, now the headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Engineers said the remaining busts would come down in the next three weeks. The four statues of Saddam, adorned with tropical helmets, were a prominent part of Baghdad's skyline.

Four others remain on another downtown palace that was bombed and badly damaged in the war. There are no immediate plans to remove those, officials said.

U.S. May Have Just Missed Catching Saddam Lieutenant

By Andrew Hammond

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Troops apprehended "quality targets" among 54 suspected guerrillas seized near Kirkuk but probably just missed catching the second most wanted man in Iraq after Saddam Hussein , the U.S. military said Wednesday.

More than 1,000 soldiers raided the small town of Hawija near the northern oil hub Tuesday but failed to find Saddam's right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

"We had expected to find Izzat Ibrahim himself in a house in Hawija, but he wasn't there. It was pretty clear he had been there recently," said Sergeant Todd Oliver, a spokesman for the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Soldiers detained but later released a relative of Ibrahim, Oliver said after the raid which lasted almost 48 hours.

In a statement, the U.S. military said 54 people had been detained and one "enemy" was killed and two wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. A cache of weapons was also seized.

Sources in Iraq's Governing Council said Tuesday they had been told Ibrahim had been captured or killed but the American military has said he was not among the detainees.

U.S. military officials have said suspected guerrilla leaders caught included the heads of two cells of the Saddam Fedayeen militia and were "quality targets."

Residents of Hawija were angry Wednesday.

In the small hospital that serves around 30,000 people, two heavily bandaged brothers lay side by side, both having been shot, one doctor said, by U.S. troops.

"They are just farmers, they have never done anything wrong," said Dr Victor Faleh Hussein, as he held up X-rays showing the three bullets that hit one of the brothers, two in the shoulder and one in the head.

"People in this town are simple and good. Now they are angry and confused and they hate the Americans."

Hawija's muddy streets were quiet, although wide track marks from military vehicles lined the roads.

ALLIES AGONISE

U.S. forces have come under fire daily since toppling Saddam in April. Another U.S. soldier was killed Tuesday by a bomb near the town of Samarra, the 189th to die in fighting since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

Weekend attacks killed seven Spanish intelligence agents, two South Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats, their Iraqi driver, a Colombian contractor and two U.S. soldiers, and left allies agonizing over the cost in blood of the occupation.

But despite an upsurge in attacks on foreigners, Asian allies pledged support for Iraq troop deployments. South Korea (news - web sites) said Wednesday it would not delay sending more troops to help U.S.-led forces once parliament approved the plan.

Japan has also said it would still send troops, although Japanese media reported approval could be delayed after the two diplomats' deaths near Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.

Thailand said it would keep its 433 medical and engineering troops in Iraq at least until March.

Spain, which buried its intelligence agents Tuesday, vowed to stay the course.

The raid on Hawija was in the "Sunni triangle," a region inhabited by Sunni Muslims, a minority to which Saddam belonged, and which has shown the fiercest resistance to occupation.

The U.S. military said last month Ibrahim was directly involved in attacks on U.S. troops and put a $10 million bounty on his head. A reward of $25 million is still on offer for information leading to the capture or death of Saddam. (With reporting by Luke Baker in Hawija)

A U.S. soldier uses spray paint to cover anti-American graffiti that reads 'We will cut hands of those who cooperate with Americans,' in Baghdad December 3, 2003. Troops apprehended 'quality targets' among 54 suspected guerrillas seized near Kirkuk but probably just missed catching the second most wanted man in Iraq after Saddam Hussein, the U.S. military said Wednesday. More than 1,000 soldiers raided the small town of Hawija near the northern oil hub Tuesday but failed to find Saddam's right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Iraqi Council Head Demands Direct Vote

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The head of the Iraqi Governing Council renewed his demand Wednesday that a proposed transitional legislature be elected by Iraqi voters, a move opposed by U.S. occupation officials.

Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite Muslim cleric who has recently been a vocal critic of American plans for restoring sovereignty to Iraqis, holds the rotating presidency of the U.S.-appointed council for the month of December.

His assumption of the post could point to rockier relations with American administrators. It also highlights the transformation of Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Iraq's Shiite majority were oppressed under Saddam's regime, particularly religious leaders. Al-Hakim holds clerical status — unlike Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite who held the presidency earlier this year.

A Nov. 15 agreement between the council and L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator calls for caucuses in Iraq's 18 provinces to select the transitional legislature.

But al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has insisted on a vote.

"The assembly will be elected by the Iraqi people. This is what we are trying to achieve and that's what, God willing, will happen," he said Wednesday.

Under the U.S. plan agreed to by the 25-member council, the legislature will elect a transitional government with full sovereign powers by July 1. Iraqis voters would then elect members of a constituent assembly in elections that would be held by March 15, 2005. They go back to ballot boxes before the end of that year to ratify a new constitution and elect a government that would take over from the transitional administration.

The coalition believes that a rushed general election could hurt Iraq's democratization process and may be hijacked by extremist Muslim groups and members of Saddam's now-banned Baath party. Coalition officials claim that a majority of council members support that plan.

The Bush administration, faced with an escalating guerrilla war and mounting casualties among the occupation forces, sees the installation of a sovereign Iraqi government as a way to help defuse the rebellion.

Washington also considers that Shiite participation is essential for the success of any political process, since Shiites are believed to make up 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people.

But al-Hakim has been seeking to garner support for his stance among the influential Shiite religious leadership. Last week, he met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini, who let it be known he has rerservations about the U.S. plan, and on Tuesday another grand ayatollah, Mohammed Taqi al-Modaresi, also said the legislature should be elected.

Meanwhile, a massive U.S. raid in a northern Iraqi village led to the arrests of 34 people and the confiscation of dozens of guns, the American military said Wednesday. Residents accused soldiers of excessive force.

Initial reports said troops were hunting for Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a top Saddam ally who is considered a key planner of recent attacks. U.S. officials have posted a $10 million bounty for al-Douri. They suspect he could also be working with the al-Qaida-linked militant group Ansar al-Islam.

Lt. Col. William Schafer said that although U.S. forces have been searching for al-Douri, "we did not come here specifically searching for him."

The raid occurred in Hawija, 155 miles north of Baghdad. The U.S. military said it detained 34 people and confiscated 70 small arms along with six rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

However, many villagers said the Americans had fired randomly at people in the area.

Alaa Hosein, a 22-year old farmer interviewed in Kirkuk hospital, said he and his cousin were returning from their fields when soldiers opened fire. Hosein was hit in the right leg, while his cousin was critically injured in the head.

"They came to make trouble, not to restore security," Hosein said from his hospital bed.

At the town of Najaf, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Honduran troops serving with the coalition were attacked with mortar fire early Wednesday, the military said. No damage was caused and there were no casualties among the 360 Honduran soldiers on the base.

A deputy of firebrand Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr has been arrested Iraq in connection with the killing of two US soldiers, US military deputy director for operations Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.(AFP/File/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

US army arrest deputy to firebrand Shiite cleric

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A deputy of a firebrand Shiite leader has been arrested Iraq in connection with the killing of two US soldiers, US military deputy director for operations Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.

"Coalition forces in Baghdad conducted a joint raid with the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps and detained Amar al-Yasseri, operations director of Moqtada Sadr in Sadr City, also believed to have been behind the ambush of coalition troops on October 9," the general told a Baghdad press conference Wednesday.

Yasseri was captured in the sprawling Shiite quarter without incident, Kimmitt added.

The two soldiers died on October 9.

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