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US blitzes Saddam hometown
09/01/2004 18:12 - (SA)
Tikrit - Hundreds of United States soldiers, backed by air support, sealed off much of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit early on Friday, raiding a score of houses and arresting 30 suspected anti-coalition fighters.
A total of 46 suspects were seized in the night raid as tanks rumbled through the city and a heavily-armed AC-130 Spectre flew overhead, said the US military.
The operation's commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Russell, said 16 people had since been released, but 30 remained under interrogation, including one man identified as a mole who had leaked information to guerrillas.
He said 14 of those held in the operation were "targeted" individuals, including one linked to the death of a soldier from the US 4th Infantry division in an attack on October 1.
Others were involved "in financing and organising attacks, one was involved in handing out leaflets, death-threat type leaflets... threatening Iraqis who worked with the government and coalition," said Russell.
Soldiers involved in the raid handcuffed and blindfolded suspects after pulling them from their houses in front of family.
Scoured building for hidden weapons
"This is the third time we've raided this house since June," said sergeant Patrick McDermott as his colleagues hauled three men out of one house.
"Half the people in this area love us. The rest hate us," he added, while his colleagues dug holes in the garden and scoured the building for hidden weapons, watched by a woman resident and her teenage son.
The three suspects were taken away to be interrogated, and the men turned their attention to a house a few hundred metres away.
There, they scaled a garden wall and burst into another home where the women and children stood by and watched their menfolk being led outside to be tied up and have a white band placed over their eyes.
One of the four detainees suddenly tried to break free and was grappled to the ground by soldiers, getting a minor head wound in the process.
"He knows he's in trouble. That's why he tried to run," said Russell, who toured some of the 20 houses and three stores targeted in the raids that began shortly before midnight on Thursday and went on until the early hours of Friday.
- AFP
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