Seven U.S. Soldiers Killed, Injured In Iraq

In a separate incident, eyewitnesses said a U.S. military Hammer personnel carrier came under an attack by a hand grenade at the western side of Al-Karkh in Baghdad early Saturday, but did not inflict any casualties among American soldiers.

In another related development, Al-Sa’a newspaper reported Saturday that 7 U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed in an attack on July 21 near Baghdad Tourist Island in northern Baghdad . The incident was not reported by the U.S. forces till this date.


Since the official end of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq , at least 47 U.S. soldiers have been killed in resistance operations mainly around Baghdad and north and west of the capital.



Tightened Noose

The U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division announced Saturday capturing 13 people, including several of Saddam’s bodyguards, during a raid on a house south of Tikrit, reported AFP.


Five to 10 of the 13 people captured in the raid “are believed to be Saddam Hussein’s personal security detachment,” said Major General Ray Odierno told Pentagon reporters Friday, July 25, from Tikrit via teleconference.


“We picked them up this morning, so we’re still working through the intelligence with them, and we’re really interrogating them now.”


The raid followed a tip from an Iraqi informant, said Odierno, adding that over the last 24 hours his forces “detained, killed or wounded over 60 Iraqi subversives.”


The American commander said that a tip led his soldiers to an underground container near Samarra with 10 AK-47s, 34 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 45,000 sticks of dynamite, 28 submachine guns and other weapons inside.


Arguing Washington was tightening the noose around Saddam, Odierno said that a series of raids in the last three weeks picked up his personal bodyguard and security adviser.


“And so I believe that we continue to tighten the noose, and I believe that we continue to gain more and more information about where he might be,” he said.


In London a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division told the BBC that Saddam’s capture was “just a matter of time.”


“We’ve got remnants of the former regime on the run, we know that they can’t stay in one place for more than an hour or two at a time, so it’s just a matter of time … before we get him,” she said.



Police Attacked


Baghdad’s Police Director Brigadier Ahmed Kadhim and five policemen who were wounded Saturday while on an inspection tour at Al-Shu’la district north of Baghdad that resulted in the detention of a number of suspects, reported IOL correspondent.


Brigadier Kadhim told reporters at the hospital that his force had been after two gangs kidnapping girls and schoolchildren.


“We succeeded to arrest the first gang, but when we headed to arrest the second gang, it opened fire on us causing our injury,” he said.


The Iraqi police officer warned all such gangs that the Iraqi police were after them and called on all Iraqis to report their criminal acts.


“The Iraqi police forces are working 24 hours to follow and root out those criminal gangs,” Kadhim said.



Falluja


In the western Iraqi town of Falluja , some 65 kms to the west of Baghdad , at least two shops were destroyed by hand grenades for selling blue films, in violation of Islamic shariaa.


Falluja was home for several Iraqi resistance attacks on U.S. troops, dozens of whom were killed or injured over the past few weeks, forcing them to move to areas away from the center of the city.



Related Stories:



Russian General
Warns Of Iraqi Vietnam