U.S. Troops Arrest Kurdish Leader

“Some 2,000 U.S. soldiers, supported by two helicopters, laid siege to Abdul Aziz’s house in Halabja at 5:30 pm (1330 GMT) on Saturday (August 2) before taking him and 14 other people away,” Agence France-Presse quoted the official as saying.

Mullah Omar, brother of Abdul Aziz, and bodyguards of the spiritual leader were among those arrested, he said, adding that the group was taken to an “unknown destination.”

“The group is surprised that the Americans can arrest its spiritual guide who has long since declared war on the Baath party and the former regime in Iraq,” the official said, accusing U.S. forces of now attacking “supporters of freedom and enemies of Saddam Hussein’s regime.”

While the official gave no reason for the arrests, sources close to the group said that U.S. forces had asked the movement to vacate its Arbil office to the U.S.-led troops, without elaborating.

Resistance Unabated

Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier and two Iraqi civilians were wounded near Baquba, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Baghdad, Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald of the Fourth Infantry Division (4ID) said Monday, August 4.

“We had a logistical convoy that was attacked by an improvised explosive device (IED) on highway 2 near the town of Al-Husseini at 11 am (0700 GMT) Sunday,” MacDonald said.

A firefight broke out with attackers before 4ID’s second brigade “detained 12 Iraqis suspected of carrying out the attack,” said MacDonald.

The attack was the same one reported Sunday by residents near Baquba.

They said two soldiers were wounded when their Humvee all-terrain vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

In another incident, U.S. troops stationed at Ibn Firnas airport, 60 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, came under mortar attack Sunday night from a group of unidentified assailants, witnesses said Monday.

Iraqi resistance fighters fired one mortar bomb at U.S. troops at 10:30 pm (1830 GMT) before fleeing, witness Ibrahim Saleh told AFP, unable to say whether there had been any casualties.

U.S. troops at Ibn Firnas airport have come under regular mortar fire over past weeks.

Iraqi police also opened fire Monday on armed men who fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a U.S. military vehicle and accompanying police in Khaldiya, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, witnesses said.

Resident Ismael Turki told AFP the men fired an RPG at a U.S. troop transporter traveling through the centre of the village.

There was an exchange of fire as the men fled, after which U.S. forces carried out house raids.

Ongoing Arrests

The resistance incidents coincided with a massive hunt operation for ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

MacDonald said the hunt operation, codenamed TaskForce Ironhorse, conducted 300 patrols, 11 raids and arrested 11 people in the past 24 hours.

Early Monday, the U.S.-led troops said it had captured another key fighter in the chain of localized resistance in Tikrit.

“The main guy we targeted last night turned himself in this morning. He was an organizer, a former regime loyalist,” said Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, of the 1-22 battalion, adding that the non-stop raids were making a difference in cracking the region’s pro-Saddam cells.

“There are fewer and fewer of these men who support the regime. We are getting great information from them now, which is leading to these raids,” he said.

In the raids, the troops seized four surface-to-air missiles and an air defense artillery radar system, among the usual finds of Kalashnikov rifles and RPGs.

A 75-year-old Iraqi farmer was shot dead and his son wounded Sunday by U.S. troops after being turned back at a U.S. checkpoint west of Fallujah.