IRAQ: USING HUMVEES AND MILITARY BOATS U.S. TROOPS LAUNCH OPERATION ON A TERRORIST TRAINING CAMP NORTH OF BAGHDAD.

Record ID: 590758

  • Title: IRAQ: USING HUMVEES AND MILITARY BOATS U.S. TROOPS LAUNCH OPERATION ON A TERRORIST TRAINING CAMP NORTH OF BAGHDAD.
  • Date: 12th June 2003
  • Summary: (U4) BALAD, NORTH OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JUNE 12, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS: OF U.S. HUMVEES AND MILITARY VEHICLES PATROLLING THE CITY OF BALAD. (3 SHOTS) 0.30 2. SCU: U.S. SOLDIER HOLDING HIS GUN. 0.34 3. SCU: AN OLD WOMAN PEERING OVER WALL. 0.36 4. WS: U.S. SOLDIERS PATROLLING AS VEHICLES PASS BY. 0.43 5. WS/PAN: OF TIGRIS RIVER WITH U.S. SOLDIERS STANDING ON THE BANK OF THE RIVER. 0.53 6. VARIOUS: U.S. SOLDIER CROUCHING BEHIND BARBED WIRE. (3 SHOTS) 1.09 7. VARIOUS: OF U.S SOLDIERS PATROLLING ON MILITARY BOAT. (4 SHOTS) 1.40 8. VARIOUS: LOCAL RESIDENT SHOWING DAMAGE TO EXTERIOR OF HIS HOUSE. (2 SHOTS) 1.54 9. MV: INSIDE THE HOUSE. 1.56 10. TILT DOWN/CU: UPTURNED FURNITURE INSIDE HOUSE AFTER INSPECTION BY U.S SOLDIERS. 2.01 11. SCU: PISTOL IN DRAWER. 2.05 12. SCU/MV: UPTURNED FURNITURE AND DEBRIS. (2 SHOTS) 2.14 13. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HADHIFA MOHAMMED A LOCAL RESIDENT SAYING: "We couldn't communicate with them while they were with us inside the house, they hit my father and shot their guns. They cuffed us and took us away from our house and they stayed inside the house." 2.33 14. VARIOUS: INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE WITH UPTURNED FURNITURE. (3 SHOTS) 2.57 15. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) A LOCAL RESIDENT SAYING: SCU: "This is a terrorist act, they stormed into our house at 02:30 am after midnight." 3.08 16. CU: OF CHILD WHOM RESIDENTS CLAIM WAS ARRESTED. 3.12 17. WS: US. SOLDIERS WITH ARMOURED VEHICLE WAITING AT SIDE OF ROAD. 3.21 18. MLV: U.S. SOLDIER AND A LOCAL RESIDENT STANDING BESIDE HIM. 3.24 19. MLV/WS: OF THE SITE. (2 SHOTS) 3.36 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th June 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BALAD, (37 MILES NORTH OF BAGHDAD), IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA5K9ZWQUW2Q5TYCXR04LB8CST9
  • Story Text: Using humvees and military boats, the U.S. military
    launched a massive operation to crush opposition north of
    Baghdad in a bid to end daily attacks against American
    soldiers.



    U.S.-led forces raided an Iraqi "terrorist training
    camp" northwest of Baghdad on Thursday (June 12), pounding it
    from the air and battling Iraqi gunmen on the ground, the U.S.

    military said.

    The camp, around 150 km (93 miles) from Baghdad, was hit
    in the early hours of the morning with a coordinated air
    strike before soldiers from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division
    moved in.

    "A direct firefight ensued with ground forces early this
    morning," a U.S. military statement said. "One coalition
    soldier received minor wounds."
    It said the raid was part of "the continued effort to
    eradicate Baath Party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other
    subversive elements". It did not explain what group was
    running the alleged terrorist training camp.

    The United States launched a major operation this week to
    crack down on guerrillas who have staged repeated deadly
    ambushes on U.S. forces north of Baghdad. The U.S. army blames
    supporters of Saddam Hussein for the wave of attacks.

    Operation Peninsula Strike, the largest U.S. operation in
    Iraq since the end of active hostilities in April, involves
    some 4,000 troops scouring an area around the Tigris river
    northeast of the restive town of Balad, U.S. officials said.

    Task Force Ironhorse, a U.S. force led by the 4th Infantry
    Division and including air assault teams, ground attack
    squads, river patrol boats and local Iraqi police, has raided
    suspected guerrilla hideouts from the air, land and river, as
    other units hunt down fugitives and block escape routes.

    A curfew has been imposed in the area from 10 p.m. to 4
    a.m. (1800 GMT to 0000 GMT).

    During the raids, which began on Monday (June 8), 397
    Iraqis were detained and four U.S. troops were wounded by
    Iraqi resistance. Three were evacuated to Germany for medical
    treatment.

    The U.S. military said 59 of those detained had been
    released, either because they were young or elderly or because
    they were of no intelligence value.

    Some 40 U.S. soldiers have been killed in attacks and
    ambushes in Iraq since Saddam's overthrow two months ago.

    The attacks have been concentrated in Baghdad and two
    nearby areas -- to the west around Ramadi and Falluja, and to
    the north around Balad, Baquba and Tikrit, Saddam's home town.

    Lieutenant-General David McKiernan, the senior U.S.

    general in Iraq, has said the attacks are believed to be
    locally organised by Saddam loyalists.

    But residents in the troubled regions around Baghdad say
    local anger is being fuelled by provocative U.S. behaviour.

    They say U.S. troops frisk women and stage indiscriminate
    raids in which they burst into houses looking for weapons.

    Many locals complain of being manhandled, roughed up and
    detained by soldiers, and say mounting resentment towards the
    occupying troops is behind recent attacks.

    "We couldn't communicate with them while they were with us
    inside the house, they hit my father and shot their guns. They
    cuffed us and took us away from our house and stayed inside
    the house," said Hadhifa Mohammed, a local resident.

    In Washington, Pentagon officials said on Tuesday (June
    10) they had no information that Saddam was alive and offering
    bounties for killing U.S. troops.

    The attacks have hampered efforts to restore security and
    begin the massive task of rebuilding Iraq after 10 years of
    U.N.-imposed sanctions.

    In the latest American death, assailants fired rocket-
    propelled grenades at a weapons collection checkpoint outside
    Baghdad, killing a paratrooper and wounding another, the U.S.

    military said Wednesday (June 11).

    On Tuesday, the military said a total of 205 coalition
    troops had died since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion
    of Iraq.

    Of those, 135 were killed in hostile activities and 70 in
    friendly fire incidents or other accidents. A total of 627
    service members were injured since the beginning of Operation
    Iraqi Freedom on March 20, the military said.




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