U.S. troops arrested at least 20 insurgents in the north, but failed to capture a top ally of Saddam Hussein who has a $10 million bounty on his head and was the target of the raid. Iraqi police said a senior former member of Saddam’s elite Republican Guard was among those captured Tuesday in Hawija, 155 miles north of Baghdad. But the troops failed to catch Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the Saddam ally considered a key planner of recent attacks against coalition forces. U.S. officials suspect he could also be working with the al-Qaida-linked militant group Ansar al-Islam. Police said six Iraqis were wounded in the raid, but it wasn’t clear if they were all insurgents. Guerrillas kept up attacks against American forces, with a U.S. soldier killed in a roadside explosion in Samarra, the scene of deadly weekend battles between Americans and Iraqis. His death brought to 441 the number of U.S. servicemen who have died in Iraq since the start of the war in March.
Meanwhile, relatives of U.S. troops visiting Iraq sought to meet with leaders of the coalition authority, hoping to voice their opposition to the U.S.-led occupation. They will also visit hospitals, schools, and U.S. military bases as part of the trip sponsored by Global Exchange and the International Occupation Watch Center. One mother held back tears while looking at U.S. soldiers guarding the entrance of the Habbaniyah military base in Baghdad. "They are so young. This is not for them. ... They look just like my boy," said Annabelle Valencia, whose daughter, 24, and son, 22, are both based in Iraq.
Get over it mom, no one twisted their arm or mine, we’re all volunteers. Now go home, quit embarrassing yourself and them. Write your kids a letter, send a holliday care package, & shut your soup cooler. Dr. Spock has left the building.
| Sonny and Sissy must be doing their duties with buckets over their heads. I'm sure the military authorities thought about recruiting old farts like me, who'd love to be there. But fielding an army with arthritis somehow doesn't seem to make sense... |
In the capital, workers used a construction crane to remove a 13-foot-tall head of Saddam from his former Republican Palace, now the headquarters of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. On Wednesday, engineers said three remaining busts would come down in the next three weeks. The four self-adoring statues of Saddam, adorned with tropical helmets, featured prominently on Baghdad’s skyline. Four others remain on another downtown palace that was bombed and badly damaged during the war. There are no immediate plans to remove those, officials said. |