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U.S., Iraqi Forces Seal Off Insurgents

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces sealed off roads to an insurgent stronghold south of Baghdad on Wednesday and militants bombed two bridges in an apparent bid to hinder troop movement, as pro-government forces tried to retake control of the region ahead of national elections.

On Tuesday, Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the tempo of attacks against insurgent strongholds would increase but acknowledged that the security challenge was a "source of worry."

"I don't want to deny the impact of the security situation nor minimize the size of the challenges we face," Allawi said during a speech in Baghdad. "I believe that many of the Iraqi people agree with me that we should not let terrorist forces decide our agenda."

More than 3,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces on Tuesday launched a major operation to retake control of insurgent-held parts of Babil province - an area notorious for kidnappings and ambushes and home to the fabled city of Babylon. The Babil operation followed last week's move to oust insurgent forces from Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The Marines and Iraqis punched their way across the Euphrates River, rounded up 160 suspects, seized a suspected training camp and took control of a major bridge, the U.S. command said. The bridge, spanning the Euphrates, is believed to be a favored corridor linking insurgent areas around Baghdad, Fallujah and towns farther south.

On Wednesday, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi National Guardsmen were sealing off the roads leading to Qasir town in the Youssifiyah area, preventing anybody from going in or out. A day earlier, insurgents detonated a car bomb in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of the capital, as the Iraqi National Guard was conducting raids, killing one civilian and wounding 13 Iraqis.

Residents said two explosions - one a car bomb another a roadside bomb - hit two bridges in the area Wednesday, in an apparent attempt by insurgents to affect the movement of Iraqi and U.S. forces.

The U.S. military lost significant areas of Iraq to insurgents after Saddam Hussein's ouster. In remarks published Tuesday, L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian official in Iraq at the time, said "we never had enough troops on the ground."

U.S. and Iraqi forces are trying to curb the mounting insurgency in order to hold national elections throughout the country in January. Some U.S. officials have expressed doubt that balloting will be possible in areas that have slipped from Iraqi government control.

"The U.S. military operation is unjustified and most of the arrests are random and it will increase the hostilities in the area," Mohammed Fadhil, the 20-year-old owner of a Youssifiyah grocery shop said on Wednesday. "The Americans want to stop the resistance which they call terrorism and this is wrong. In fact is it is legitimate reaction to the occupation"

But others felt the raids were needed to restore order in the region.

"I support the military operation conducted by U.S. soldiers and Iraqi national guards. We should get rid of the armed groups in our area because their (the insurgents) only goal is to kill more Iraqis and to ignite civil war," said Mohammed Hussein, 29, a farmer.

Violence continued elsewhere in Iraq.

In Fallujah, U.S.-led forces unleashed a strike early Wednesday at a suspected safe house in rebel-held Fallujah where terrorist leaders were believed to be meeting, the military said in a statement.

American warplanes roared over the city overnight, residents said. Intelligence sources confirmed that leaders of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist network were meeting at a building in southwest Fallujah at the time of the strike, the statement said.

Three houses were flattened in the attack, witnesses said. But the families who lived there had already fled to a safer area and there were no casualties reported, said Dr. Dhiya al-Jumaili at Fallujah General Hospital.

It was the latest in weeks of strikes in the city 40 miles west of Baghdad aimed at al-Zarqawi's network and their associates. Followers of the Jordanian militant have claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bombings, kidnappings and other attacks across the country.

"Removing these criminals from Iraq and active service to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi diminishes the capabilities of the terrorist network to conduct attacks," the military said.

In Basra, a roadside bomb exploded as a British patrol was crossing a bridge, killing one Iraqi and injuring 10 others, police said Wednesday.

The explosion along the highway leading to Basra airport missed the British forces but sent a nearby Iraqi taxi tumbling off the bridge onto the railway tracks below, police Lt. Col. Kareem Sarkhan said. The driver and his six passengers were killed, he said. Four Iraqi policemen in a patrol car were also slightly injured in the blast.

There were no reports of British casualties. The British military could not immediately be reached for comment.

As part of the campaign against insurgents, Allawi's government has been negotiating with followers of renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to halt weeks of fighting with U.S. troops in the Baghdad district of Sadr City. During his speech Tuesday, Allawi said the two sides had reached the basis of a deal and talks were continuing.

However, clashes between al-Sadr's militia and American troops continued despite the talks. Residents of the Shiite district reported hearing explosions Tuesday night.

U.S. troops also battled gunmen in Ramaid, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, and in the northern city of Mosul after a series of bombings. At least five American soldiers were wounded - underscoring the role of homemade explosives as the insurgent weapon of choice in a country awash in military ordnance. There were also a number of Iraqis killed and wounded, but accounts of the figures varied.

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