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Over 100 dead in army sweep
14/06/2003 18:11 - (SA)
Baghdad - Operation Peninsula Strike to mop up resistance to US occupation in northern Iraq has left at least 113 dead in a week, according to US and Iraqi sources.
US forces killed 82 combatants at a desert training camp at Sahl, near the border with Syria, a Muslim imam from a neighbouring village said on Saturday.
"In total 82 people died in the camp," including at least one non-Iraqi, said Sheikh Gharbi Abdul Aziz, imam of the main mosque at Rawa, a few kilometres from Sahl.
He said he had taken part in the burial of the 82 bodies after fighting erupted on Thursday at dawn at the suspected terrorist training camp.
The US military reported killing 27 Iraqis after clashes broke out late on Thursday when an armoured patrol attached to the US 4th Infantry Division came under rocket propelled grenade attack near Balad, about 80km north east of Baghdad.
US Central Command said tanks returned fire and the attacking force was then pursued with tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and AH-64 Apache helicopters.
Responding to guerrilla-style attacks that have inflicted mounting casualties on US troops, the United States mounted the largest military operations since President George W Bush declared on May 1 that the major combat in the Iraq war was over.
As part of the sweep, four Iraqis died in Dhuluiya during a hunt for "Chemical Ali," Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, witnesses said.
On Thursday, the 173rd Airborne Brigade raided another suspected stronghold near the northern city of Kirkuk, apprehending 74 "suspected al-Qaeda sympathisers," Central Command said.
US forces would continue the operation launched on Sunday night "until we have restored peace and prosperity to the people of Iraq," Major Daniel Barnett said at a camp near Dhuluiya, 60km north of Baghdad.
- AFX
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