Hundreds of Iraqi police mounted house-to-house raids in Saddam Husseinâs hometown of Tikrit yesterday, the first operation of its kind without direct US military support. Shortly before sunrise, 400 newly trained officers were dropped off by car and bus in a northern district of the town, on the banks of the Tigris River, and fanned out in a hunt for weapons, explosives and suspects behind recent attacks, including last weekâs downing of a Black Hawk helicopter. âI think the person who shot down the helicopter is living in this area, or he has friends in this area,â Maj. Gen. Hamed Muzhir, head of the Iraqi National Police in Tikrit, told reporters. âNot anyone can shoot down a helicopter â you need special training for that, the sort of training that someone who was with the former regime would have got.â
| Yeah, but that includes a significant part of the former army... |
Six soldiers were killed when the Black Hawk was downed last Friday, the third attack on a US helicopter in two weeks. Until yesterday, all raids in and around Tikrit, a hotbed of anti-US insurgency, have been led by US forces, usually involving tanks, armored vehicles, heavily-armed men and helicopters. But US commanders are keen to move away from that heavy-handed approach and pass more responsibility for raids and other search-and-patrol operations onto local authorities. |