The Independent (London) June 13, 2003
Helicopter shot down by Iraqi 'terrorists'
US forces patrolling in Tuwaitha, 30 miles south of Baghdad. The US has been conducting sweeps for Saddam loyalists
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
AMERICAN FORCES are engaged in a wide-ranging effort to stamp out what they have described as "Iraqi terrorists" who shot down an American helicopter yesterday morning.
The AH-64 Apache helicopter was brought down north of Baghdad in an area said to be a stronghold of Iraqi fighters loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. It was the first helicopter to be shot down since Saddam was ousted two months ago. The operation against Saddam loyalists is the largest since the end of hostilities and has been going on for the past three days, focusing on the town of Duliyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad. Some 4,000 US soldiers have been involved in the effort, named Operation Peninsula Strike.
Along with the sweep through the largely Sunni Muslim area of central Iraq, north of the Iraqi capital, US forces struck what they described as a "terrorist training camp" about 95 miles north-west of Baghdad. Fighter jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial drones supported ground troops in the strike on the camp, in which 10 to 15 Iraqis were killed and four US soldiers injured.
The region north and west of Baghdad is part of the so-called Sunni triangle, the heartland of support for Saddam's now-banned Baath party and close to the ex-leader's home town of Tikrit. This area has been identified as part of an arc in which the former leader is reported to have been seen since he was forced from power. Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, said this week that Saddam was offering a reward of $ 200 for every US soldier killed.
The sweep has resulted in the capture of up to 400 Iraqis, who were being questioned by US officials "armed with intelligence that has directed the finger toward these suspects", said Lieutenant Ryan Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the US Central Command. Lt Fitzgerald added: "If we believe they're dangerous and will cause problems for the Iraqi people or coalition forces, we'll keep them for further information."
This week the Pentagon announced that 183 US military personnel had been killed since the war began. Of those, 45 have been killed since President George Bush declared the war in Iraq over on 1 May. Earlier this week, the Associated Press said its inquiries had established that at least 3,240 Iraqi civilians were killed in one month, between 20 March and 20 April.
Brigadier Daniel Hahn, chief of staff for V Corps, which oversees US Army operations in Iraq, said: "There have been a growing number of former regime loyalists, Baath party officials, Fedayeen and Iraqi Intelligence Service-type people who exist in the Sunni triangle and continue to hire individuals to come in and attack Americans."
John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.Org, a Washington-based military research group, said he believed the attacks on Americans were taking place as US forces worked out the scale and nature of the presence required to ensure law and order in various parts of Iraq. "I think they are nipping it in the bud as the buds appear," he said. "They have a fundamental dilemma in the sense that on the one hand they do not have an overwhelming military presence. There would be no useful purpose in having large battalions driving around and reminding people that they have been occupied - that would provoke what you are trying to avoid. It is going to be a learning process."
Copyright © 2003, Newspaper Publishing PLC
