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Iraq | ||
Raiding Tikrit - 1-9-2004 | ||
2004-01-16 | ||
US troops in Iraq raided houses and shops across Tikrit late on Thursday in an operation aimed at weeding out remaining resistance in the home town of former President Saddam Hussein. Some 300 soldiers from the armyâs 4th Infantry Division burst into targeted properties across the town and detained 13 people suspected of involvement in attacks on forces occupying Iraq, their commanding officer said. âIt was a good night,â Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell told reporters after the raids, which lasted for most of the hours of curfew in town between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. âTikrit will be a safer place tomorrow as a result.â The operation, targeting 20 houses and three shops, failed to catch five of the people included on a list of 18 suspects the army drew up on the basis of intelligence from Iraqi sources.
Ouch! Russell, whose battalion is due soon to pull out of Iraq along with the rest of the division, which controls a large chunk of northern Iraq, said earlier the raids were a âscrubbingâ exercise for Tikrit. âWeâre trying to get out the last remaining resistance in the city,â he said, while conceding sporadic gun and bomb attacks against US forced in the area were likely to continue. Army of Steves
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Posted by:Chuck Simmins |