US forces storm Iraqi hospital
2004-11-19 13:22
Baghdad - Iraqi commandos, backed by United States forces, raided a hospital in northern Mosul allegedly used by insurgents, and detained three people overnight, the US military said on Friday.
Commandos with the Ministry of Interior's Special Police Force cordoned off the al-Zaharawi Hospital in the western Shefa neighbourhood of Mosul on Thursday, after getting information that insurgents were using the hospital to treat their wounded, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings with Task Force Olympia.
US forces from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment secured the outer area around the hospital, while Iraqi troops stormed the inside, detaining three individuals suspected of being participants in terrorist activities, he said.
Hospital workers also told Iraqi forces that 23 bodies brought into the morgue were believed to be members of a terrorist cell. Photos were taken of the bodies and the three suspected militants are being held for questioning, Hastings said.
Detainees to provide info
"You can call it an insurgent hospital from what we found there," he said. "There is really no telling, they could have easily have... just barged their way in and used this hospital. They probably just went in and took it over.
"There are a lot of things to be answered. The three detained will hopefully provide intelligence how all this worked," he said.
Offensive operations were continuing in the rest of Mosul, Iraq's third largest city with more than a million residents, he said.
Earlier this week, Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib said that insurgents had kidnapped a wounded policeman from a Mosul hospital and dismembered him. The November 14 kidnapping took place at a different hospital, Hastings said.
US and Iraqi troops began a major military operation on Tuesday to wrest control of the western part of the city after gunmen last week stormed police stations, bridges and political offices, overwhelming police forces who, in many places, failed to even put up a fight. Some officers also allegedly co-operated with insurgents.
The US military said up to 2 500 US and Iraqi troops met "little resistance" during initial operations to re-secure about a dozen police stations and key bridges in the city.
On Friday, three of the five bridges had been reopened to traffic and most of the city remained calm, though US forces came under some "indirect fire" that caused no injuries, Hastings said.
Insurgents had fired mortars on Thursday at the provincial administration offices in the northern city of Mosul, wounding four of Governor Duraid Kashmoula's guards, the US military said. The governor was unhurt.
- AP