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U.S.
Troops Arrest Kurdish Leader, Still Take Fire
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U.S.
forces intensified their hunt for Saddam, civilians pay the price?
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ARBIL,
Iraq, Aug 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. forces arrested
Sunday, August 3 the spiritual leader of the Kurdish Islamic Movement -
the Kurds' oldest Islamic group Ali Abdul Aziz, and 14 other people in
the northern town of Halabja as U.S. troops in the war-ravaged country
still take resistance fire.
"Some
2,000 U.S. soldiers, supported by two helicopters, laid siege to Abdul
Aziz's house in Halabja at 5:30 pm (1330 GMT) on Saturday (August 2)
before taking him and 14 other people away," Agence France-Presse
quoted the official as saying.
Mullah
Omar, brother of Abdul Aziz, and bodyguards of the spiritual leader were
among those arrested, he said, adding that the group was taken to an
"unknown destination."
"The
group is surprised that the Americans can arrest its spiritual guide who
has long since declared war on the Baath party and the former regime in
Iraq," the official said, accusing U.S. forces of now attacking
"supporters of freedom and enemies of Saddam Hussein's
regime."
While
the official gave no reason for the arrests, sources close to the group
said that U.S. forces had asked the movement to vacate its Arbil office
to the U.S.-led troops, without elaborating.
Resistance
Unabated
Meanwhile,
a U.S. soldier and two Iraqi civilians were wounded near Baquba, 60
kilometers (37 miles) north of Baghdad, Lieutenant Colonel Bill
MacDonald of the Fourth Infantry Division (4ID) said Monday, August 4.
"We
had a logistical convoy that was attacked by an improvised explosive
device (IED) on highway 2 near the town of Al-Husseini at 11 am (0700
GMT) Sunday," MacDonald said.
A
firefight broke out with attackers before 4ID's second brigade
"detained 12 Iraqis suspected of carrying out the attack,"
said MacDonald.
The
attack was the same one reported Sunday by residents near Baquba.
They
said two soldiers were wounded when their Humvee all-terrain vehicle was
hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
In
another incident, U.S. troops stationed at Ibn Firnas airport, 60
kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, came under mortar attack
Sunday night from a group of unidentified assailants, witnesses said
Monday.
Iraqi
resistance fighters fired one mortar bomb at U.S. troops at 10:30 pm
(1830 GMT) before fleeing, witness Ibrahim Saleh told AFP, unable to say
whether there had been any casualties.
U.S.
troops at Ibn Firnas airport have come under regular mortar fire over
past weeks.
Iraqi
police also opened fire Monday on armed men who fired a rocket-propelled
grenade at a U.S. military vehicle and accompanying police in Khaldiya,
100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, witnesses said.
Resident
Ismael Turki told AFP the men fired an RPG at a U.S. troop transporter
traveling through the centre of the village.
There
was an exchange of fire as the men fled, after which U.S. forces carried
out house raids.
Ongoing
Arrests
The
resistance incidents coincided with a massive hunt operation for ousted
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
MacDonald
said the hunt operation, codenamed TaskForce Ironhorse, conducted 300
patrols, 11 raids and arrested 11 people in the past 24 hours.
Early
Monday, the U.S.-led troops said it had captured another key fighter in
the chain of localized resistance in Tikrit.
"The
main guy we targeted last night turned himself in this morning. He was
an organizer, a former regime loyalist," said Lieutenant Colonel
Steve Russell, of the 1-22 battalion, adding that the non-stop raids
were making a difference in cracking the region's pro-Saddam cells.
"There
are fewer and fewer of these men who support the regime. We are getting
great information from them now, which is leading to these raids,"
he said.
In
the raids, the troops seized four surface-to-air missiles and an air
defense artillery radar system, among the usual finds of Kalashnikov
rifles and RPGs.
A
75-year-old Iraqi farmer was shot dead
and his son wounded Sunday by U.S. troops after being turned back at a
U.S. checkpoint west of Fallujah.
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