U.S. says incursion reclaims Samarra

By Thomas S. Mulligan and Edmund Sanders
Los Angeles Times

JIM MACMILLAN / AP A U.S. soldier looks through binoculars by the main mosque yesterday in Samarra, where U.S. troops claimed a significant victory.

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As residents of Samarra ventured outside for the first time in three days, U.S. forces launched predawn airstrikes on Fallujah, another city in the so-called Sunni Triangle that has become a "no-go zone" for U.S. and Iraqi troops. The U.S. military said it killed several militants and destroyed a large cache of ammunition.

In Baghdad today, at least eight people were reported killed and 30 wounded in a car bomb blast near one of the entrances to the heavily fortified Green Zone. The car raced toward an entrance to the Green Zone and detonated close to where recruits were lining up to join Iraq's security forces, witnesses said. Civilian bystanders were also caught in the explosion.

Less than an hour later, a second blast ripped through Baghdad's central Saadoun Street.

U.S. and Iraqi officials said Samarra would be the first in a series of military thrusts aimed at quelling resistance in rebel hot spots so that national elections can be conducted safely and with maximum Iraqi participation.

It remains unknown whether Iraqi security forces can maintain control over Samarra after U.S. forces withdraw, beginning this week. After a U.S. offensive in Samarra last fall, rebels reasserted themselves, making Samarra a no-go zone in recent months for U.S. troops.

National-security adviser Condoleezza Rice said yesterday it was premature to declare the Samarra operation was "wrapped up, because insurgencies have a tendency to wax and wane."

"But clearly, the really good news out of this is that Iraqi forces have fought alongside American forces, and ... they've done well," Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition." In previous offensives, Iraqi troops have refused to fight or have fled from insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi patrols said they encountered only sporadic small-arms fire yesterday when they swept through Samarra looking for rebel fighters. By U.S. military estimates, about 125 rebels were killed and more than 80 captured. Most of the deaths occurred early Friday, when U.S. helicopter gunships blasted suspected rebel positions with rocket fire.

Of the 70 dead brought to Samarra General Hospital since fighting began, 23 were children and 18 were women, hospital official Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin told The Associated Press. An additional 160 wounded people also were treated.

"The people who were hurt most are normal people who have nothing to do with anything," Abdel Latif Hadi, 45, told The Associated Press.
 
Samarran civilians ventured into the streets yesterday, waving white cloths to military snipers on rooftops. Some residents went to hospitals to identify dead relatives or visit the injured. Hospital workers began carrying out the dead for burial. Soldiers accompanied ambulances through the city to recover bodies hastily buried in shallow graves.

"Yesterday, we closed off the city, but today we're letting some people out," said Lt. Col. Blair Schantz, commander of the 9th Engineers Battalion. Schantz said the Samarra operation had moved from combat to the reconstruction phase, with 24 projects planned, at a total value of $1.5 million.

Still, the city remained under a tight military grip. A 7 p.m.-to-7 a.m. curfew was in effect, and the only Samarrans allowed to leave town were women, children and teenage boys. Males of military age were restricted from leaving, to prevent insurgents from escaping. To deter potential car-bombers, a bridge over the Tigris River carried signs warning: "No stopping or you will be shot."

Iraqi troops in Samarra late Saturday said they captured 24 suspected foreign fighters, identified by passports or other documents as 18 Sudanese, five Egyptians and one Tunisian. All were taken to nearby Tikrit for interrogation.

Today's attack on Fallujah resulted in 45 minutes of secondary explosions, confirming U.S. suspicions that a building was being used as a large weapons and ammunition store, according to a U.S. military statement. Ten to 15 rebels were seen carrying weapons in just before the strike and therefore "a large number of enemy fighters are presumed dead," the statement said.

In Ramadi, another Sunni Triangle city west of Fallujah, soldiers conducting "a routine vehicle search" discovered more than $350,000 in U.S. currency and more than $250,000 worth of currency from 15 other countries, plus several passports.

Staff writers Esther Schrader in Washington and Suhail Ahmed in Baghdad and special correspondents in Fallujah contributed to this story. Reuters also contributed to this report.