US-led forces kill 10 in raid on Iraq insurgents
5/25/2005
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Some 1,000 US and Iraqi troops launched a new raid against insurgents, killing 10 suspects including a Muslim cleric, after reports that Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had been wounded.
Clashes erupted in Haditha after US and Iraqi troops moved into the Euphrates river city to track down insurgents who the military said had escaped an operation earlier this month near the border with Syria.
"Six insurgents were killed in the battle and two marines were reported wounded," the US military said. "Local citizens identified one of the attackers killed as an imam (who) was firing ... an AK-47 assault rifle."
Four more insurgents were killed in other clashes in the area, it said, adding that checkpoints have been set up around the city, some 260 kilometres (160 miles) northwest of the capital, to prevent insurgents fleeing.
The sweep in the northwest of the country came at a time of mounting guerrilla attacks, particularly targeting Iraq's fledgling security forces, and growing US military casualties.
At least nine Iraqis were killed in shootings and bombings on Wednesday, amid a sharp escalation in attacks since the formation of the new government of Prime Minister Ibraham Jaafari in early May.
The latest suicide bombing in southern Baghdad late Wednesday killed three police, a defence ministry source said.
"Three policemen were killed and three wounded in a suicide attack at 9:00 pm (1700 GMT) in Dura, in southern Baghdad," he said, adding that the attacker was Sudanese.
Officials say more than 600 people have been killed this month alone.
As the sweep of militants loyal to Zarqawi continued in the northwest, Iraqi and US forces said they had arrested two of his top aides and killed another, the day after an Internet statement said the Jordanian-born militant was wounded.
The US military said it had arrested "one of the most wanted people" in northern Iraq, Mullah Kamel al-Assawadi, and one of the regional secretaries of Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq.
The Iraqi government added that its forces had killed Sabhan Ahmed Ramadan, alias Agha Abu Saad, as he manned an insurgent checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul on May 19.
Ramadan was allegedly the right-hand man of the city's Al-Qaeda cell leader, Abu Talha.
US officials have reacted with caution to the reports of Zarqawi's wounding and army officers have warned "there isn't a single leader directing all the activities" in the persistent insurgency in Sunni Arab areas.
The possible demise of Iraq's most feared man has led one of his aides to question who should lead his comrades in the event of his death, an American newspaper reported.
The man, who identified himself as Abu Karrar, told the Washington Post that Zarqawi had been shot between the shoulder and chest in fighting Saturday and Sunday around Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
One of Zarqawi's top aides and several Arab fighters were killed in the battle, the paper said.
Zarqawi's group has been behind many of the deadliest bombings and hostage beheadings in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein two years ago and the United States has put a 25-million-dollar price on his head.
Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari meanwhile said he was calling on the United Nations to extend the mandate of the US-led foreign troops stationed in the country, with local forces unable to cope with the onslaught of violence.
Under the terms of Resolution 1546, adopted on June 8, 2004, the UN Security Council said the troop mandate could be reexamined either 12 months after the resolution's adoption, or if the Iraqi government requested it.
There are currently about 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq, including a 138,000 Americans who have borne the brunt of attacks against coalition forces.
A number of coalition members however have expressed growing concern over the lengthening mission, while Washington has warned against too hasty a pullout.
"As we stand now, our country continues to face an armed insurgency, which still includes foreign elements opposed to Iraq's transition to democratic rule," Zebari said in a letter to the United Nations.
"Despite continuing efforts to build up our security forces, these forces cannot as yet assume full responsibility for maintaining our national security and defending our borders," Zebari added.
Top US generals believe Washington's troop commitment in Iraq could last many years because of the time needed to train an effective security force.
"If we take our foot off the throat of the insurgency, the country could go back to chaos," a senior US officer warned in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a Muslim leader in Sydney launched a desperate bid to save the life of a compatriot held hostage in Iraq.
"I announce my sincere readiness to hand myself over to the captors to be a hostage in exchange for the sick Australian citizen, till the conditions of the brotherly captors are met in the way they want," Sheikh Taj Eldin Al Hilali said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Hilali spoke by phone to a man whose voice he was certain was that of the hostage, contractor Douglas Wood, aged 63, who was seized at the end of last month.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050525/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_050525183354
YEMEN: BAATHIST TRAINING CAMPS IN YEMEN
Sanaa, 25 May (AKI) - Yemen is home to training camps for exiled members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, reports the Iranian agency Mehr, citing high-ranking sources from the Yemeni government. One government member confirmed that the camps are run by subversive elements from Yemen's secret services. Several former Iraqi troops sought refuge in the Arab country after the fall of Saddam, writes Mehr, where they obtained political and financial support.
The revelations have been partly confirmed by the former Yemeni ambassador to Syria, Ahmed Abdullah al-Hasani, who recently requested political asylum in London. A former commander of Yemen's navy, al-Hasani has already talked about many officers from the army, police and secret services being members of groups linked to al-Qaeda, the terror network headed by Osama bin Laden.
"It doesn't surprise me that the al-Qaeda supporters in our security forces and the Republican Guard have also provided political support and military training to the Iraqi Baathists," al-Hasani told the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Watan.
Yemen is a key partner in the "war on terror" and is trying to rid itself of its reputation as a haven for Islamic militants, but it is also a very poor, tribal society, where the government struggles to maintain control over all its territory. It is also trying to quell a rebellion by Shiites in the north of the country.