- Title: IRAQ: U.S. TROOPS OFFENSIVE IN SAMARRA TO ROUND UP GUERRILLA FIGHTERS.
- Date: 17th December 2003
- Summary: (W5) SAMARRA, IRAQ (DECEMBER 17, 2003)(REUTERS) 1. WS/TRACK: TWO TANKS DRIVING DOWN THE STREET PAST THE GRAND MOSQUE OF SAMARRA. (2 SHOTS) 0.15 2. VARIOUS: OF U.S. SOLDIERS WALKING ON STREETS. (3 SHOTS) 0.30 3. TRAVEL: ARMED U.S. SOLDIER WALKING ON THE STREET. 0.38 4. VARIOUS: CHILDREN WATCHING AS U.S. SOLDIERS WALK ON STREET. (2 SHOTS) 0.50 5. WS: U.S. SOLDIERS PATROLING STREETS. 0.58 6. VARIOUS: U.S. HUMVEES, MILITARY VEHICLES AND SOLDIERS PATROLLING STREETS. (4 SHOTS) 1.22 (U3) SAMARRA, IRAQ (DECEMBER 17, 2003)(REUTERS) 7. WS/EXTERIOR: SAMARRA HOSPITAL. 1.27 8. VARIOUS: WOMAN STANDING NEAR HER WOUNDED SON. (4 SHOTS) 1.42 9. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Arabic) MOTHER OF WOUNDED, SAYING "Around 2:45 am early this morning they attacked us, and opened fire at the house, my husband and my son were wounded, they were bleeding till 6:00 in the morning because of the curfew." 2.13 10. MV: MAHMOUD HASSAN, WOUNDED AT HOSPITAL. 2.17 11. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Arabic) MAHMOUD HASSAN, WOUNDED AT HOSPITAL, SAYING "We don't have any problems with the Americans, we always greet them, Why they doing this to us?" 2.44 (W5) SAMARRA, IRAQ (DECEMBER 17, 2003)(REUTERS) 12. WS: U.S. TROOPS IN STREET. 2.49 13. CU: BULLET HOLES IN CAR. 2.52 14. SCU: SOUNDBITE (Arabic), OWNER OF HOUSE AMMAR AHMED, SAYING "When the shooting started, the Americans entered the house and forced us to the ground and hit us by rifles and then they broke the glass of the house and the car and they injured us." 3.05 15. CU: WOUND IN AMMAR'S LEG. 3.10 16. MV: GATE WITH BULLET HOLES AND CAR WITH BROKEN WINDOW GLASS. 3.20 (U3) SAMARRA, IRAQ (DECEMBER 17, 2003)(REUTERS) 17. WS/ZOOM OUT/LV: IRAQIS WATCHING U.S. TANKS PASS BY. 3.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st January 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SAMARRA, NORTH OF BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA4I9VCNKGYOSWAKSPCO2Z0SOHC
- Story Text: Thousands of U.S. troops swoop on Samarra, where
anti-American feeling is running high, stepping up
offensive to round up guerrilla fighters.
Thousands of U.S. troops on Wednesday (December 17, 2003)
swooped on the predominantly anti-American town of Samarra,
north of Baghdad, to flush out insurgents as U.S. President
George W. Bush said former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,
held by U.S. forces at an undisclosed location, deserved to
die.
In a continued crackdown on guerrillas, U.S. troops
raided a house in the town of Samarra and captured 73
suspected insurgents on Tuesday (December 16), including
the leader of a guerrilla cell, the U.S. Army said.
U.S. army sources said early on Wednesday that the
offensive was stepped up overnight to isolate and eliminate
former members of Saddam's regime and other cells fighting
the U.S.-led coalition and seeking to destabilise Iraq.
The U.S. 4th Infantry Division, based in Tikrit, was
running Operation Ivy Blizzard in Samarra, along with Iraqi
security forces, the army said.
Two army brigades ringed the town, cutting it off from
the outside world while soldiers of a third brigade made
house-to-house searches after the imposed curfew on the
town. They also scoured workshops and junkyards in the
industrial sector of town.
U.S. troops on Wednesday afternoon conducted a foot
patrol of the streets of the town. Samarra was almost a
ghost city in the early hours of the day with deserted and
empty streets after a curfew imposed by the U.S. forces.
Shops remained closed and people stayed at home.
Residents said that some Iraqis were wounded when U.S
soldiers opened fire at their houses and cars, many of them
were taken to the local hospital for medical treatment.
"Around 2:45 am early this morning they attacked us and
opened fire at the house. My husband and my son were
wounded, they were bleeding till 6:00 in the morning
because of the curfew" said Um Issam.
One of the wounded in hospital, Mahmoud Hassan, said
"We don't have any problems with the Americans, we always
greet them, Why they doing this to us?"
At times the U.S. troops used hammers and demolition
charges to open doors at shops or homes. Five people were
arrested and a small amount of weapons were seized.
"When the shooting started, the Americans entered the
house and forced us to the ground and hit us by rifles and
then they broke the glass of the house and the car and they
injured us," Ammar Ahmed, a local home owner said.
A car riddled with bullet holes and broken glass was
parked in the garage of the house.
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