U.S. force tries to crack down on center of Iraqi resistance

By Seattle Times news services

	STEFAN ZAKLIN / AP Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division search a store in the industrial section of Samarra. The city in Iraq's Sunni Triangle has been the site of a number of ambushes on coalition forces.
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Using sledgehammers, crowbars, explosives and armored vehicles, U.S. forces smashed down the gates of homes and the doors of workshops and junkyards to attack the resistance that has persisted despite the capture of Saddam.

Loud blasts mixed with the sound of women and children screaming inside the houses in what U.S. military commanders dubbed Operation Ivy Blizzard.

An explosion at the gate of one compound shattered windows, cutting a 1-year-old baby with glass. U.S. medics treated the injury while other soldiers handcuffed four men, who were later released. The 4th Infantry Division and Iraqi forces detained at least a dozen suspected guerrillas — though others got away, apparently tipped off about the raid.

U.S. intelligence officials, who requested anonymity because the information is classified, said the soldiers who captured Saddam about 20 miles from Samarra on Saturday recovered a document with the names of former senior Iraqi officials who've been working with the anti-American resistance.

A few of the names were a surprise to U.S. intelligence officials, although most of them were already known and had long since gone into hiding, they said.

Iraqi officials revealed yesterday Saddam was being held in the Baghdad area.

In action overnight, a U.S. soldier was killed in an attack in central Baghdad, a U.S. military spokeswoman said today. The death due to hostile fire was the first combat fatality suffered by U.S. troops since the announcement Sunday of Saddam's capture.

The spokeswoman said a patrol from the 1st Armored Division was attacked in al-Karradah neighborhood of Baghdad late last night. She did not give further details.

Four hours later, a bomb exploded near a U.S. patrol in another district of Baghdad, wounding a soldier and an Iraqi translator, she said.

Since Saddam was captured, violent demonstrations have erupted across several cities, and two suicide bombings at police stations have killed nine Iraqis.

In the northern city of Mosul, assailants shot and killed a policeman, police said. And Iraqi security forces there opened fire on pro-Saddam protesters, wounding nine, witnesses said.

U.S. officials say 1,500 fighters operate in Samarra, making it one of the persistent hotspots in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the region north of Baghdad dominated by minority Sunni Muslims, the bedrock of Saddam's 24 years in power.

The anti-U.S. insurgency, which has killed nearly 200 American soldiers since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1, is concentrated in the region, and support for the former dictator remains strong there.

"Samarra has been a little bit of a thorn in our side," said Col. Nate Sassaman. "This operation is designed to bring them up to speed."

	STEFAN ZAKLIN / AP Two soldiers from the U.S. 4th Infantry Division participate in yesterday's search for wanted men and weapons in Samarra, Iraq.

In late November, for example, dozens of combatants in Samarra opened fire on U.S. troops accompanying two money exchange convoys. The ensuing combat lasted hours and resulted in the death of 54 insurgents, according to the U.S. military, making it one of the bloodiest incidents since the end of major combat was declared. Officials and residents of Samarra disputed the U.S. account and said fewer than 10 were killed, mostly civilians.

On Monday, guerrillas in the city ambushed a U.S. patrol, sparking a battle in which soldiers killed 11 attackers. "They've made a mistake to attack U.S. forces," Sassaman said.

Samarra was also suspected as a base for foreign fighters, but none was taken into custody in the early part of the operation, officials said.

Indeed, the lack of firefights came as something of a surprise for U.S. soldiers, who were told to be ready for major combat — "just like Mogadishu," as one said, referring to the intense, door-to-door fighting a decade ago in the Somali capital.

"They hyped this place like it was the Wild West," said Staff Sgt. Tom Walker, 29, while on an infantry patrol yesterday afternoon.

The raids in Samarra began Tuesday with the arrests of 79 suspected resistance members, including a suspected guerrilla leader, Qais Hattam, during a meeting in a building in which they apparently were planning attacks.

"We think it was a complete cell we caught," Gen. Raymond Ordierno, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said yesterday. The intelligence officials said one name on the list, found in a house near the hole where Saddam was hiding, was that of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a top lieutenant of the former dictator who American military officials have said is a top insurgency leader.

The intelligence officials, however, said they believed al Douri was ill with cancer and that his son, Ahmed, was directing the resistance by former members of Saddam's security forces and Baath party.

The latest operation in Samarra started before dawn yesterday and involved more than 2,000 soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles from the 4th Infantry Division. U.S.-recruited Iraqi security forces assisted in the sweep.

The U.S. effort generally was met with deep skepticism in a community where U.S.-trained civil corpsmen have taken to wearing ski masks to conceal their identity and avoid being targeted as collaborators. "This is a tribal town, and everyone knows everyone else," said Sideck Ahmed.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Reuters and the Los Angeles Times.

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