GIs Kill Iraqi Gunmen, Protesters
U.S. troops killed 11 attackers after being ambushed in a town north of Baghdad, the military said Tuesday, and hundreds of Iraqis marched in pro-Saddam Hussein demonstrations in several cities.
Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence agencies are turning their efforts toward rounding up remaining principals of Saddam's regime who may be playing a more direct role than the now-captured former president did in running guerrilla operations in Iraq, officials say.
Gunmen with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons ambushed a U.S. patrol Monday afternoon in the town of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a military statement said. The attack caused no casualties to the patrol, which called in reinforcements.
A company commander on the scene said 11 insurgents were killed in the ensuing firefight.
In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, U.S. officers said a roadside bomb on Tuesday wounded three soldiers, two seriously. The military also said that a U.S. soldier died when he fell out of the vehicle he was riding north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a military statement said that soldiers in the town of Ramadi west of Baghdad killed three protesters and wounded two more on Monday, after up to 750 people rallied in a show of support for Saddam. The military said that U.S. troops were fired upon repeatedly and that one soldier was wounded.
In Fallujah, another hotspot of anti-American resistance west of Baghdad, crowds chanting "We defend Saddam with our souls," overran the mayor's office Monday after Iraqi police withdrew from the streets, the military said.
In the northern city of Mosul, soldiers fired warning shots to disperse hundreds of demonstrators marching through the center of town Tuesday, waving old banknotes with Saddam's image. Helicopters flew over the crowd and several armored vehicles were deployed nearby. One policeman was killed and a second was injured, police said.
In other developments:
The U.S. military said it expected Saddam will clarify accusations that his armed forces had large arsenals of banned chemical, biological weapons and ballistic missiles, as well as an active program aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Those allegations were the main rationale for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, but no weapons have been found almost nine months later.
Since Saddam's capture, U.S. Army teams from the 1st Armored Division have captured one high-ranking former regime figure — who has yet to be named — and that prisoner has given up a few others, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling said Monday.
The prime Iraqi leaders still at large include Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, his son Ahmed and Hani Abd al-Latif Tilfah al-Tikriti, all of whom are thought to be involved in the guerrilla war against the U.S.-led occupation, U.S. officials said.
The intelligence that led the military to the men came from the first transcript of Saddam's initial interrogation, and a briefcase of documents Saddam carried with him at the time of his arrest, Hertling said.
According to reports on his interrogation so far, Saddam has denied harboring weapons of mass destructions or any links to the terrorist group al Qaeda. He has refused to answer any direct questions about the militant movement he had cheered on from hiding.
Four Iraqi governing council members who met Saddam Sunday night, say he was foul-mouthed, and sometimes incoherent.
"Demoralized, miserable, really broken person when we saw him, but he was defiant, unrepentant, and has no remorse," Mowaffaq al Rubaie told CBS News.
U.S. commanders have predicted that Iraqi guerrillas may be spurred to fight even harder in the short term, perhaps only to prove that Saddam meant little to them. It is also possible that some of the guerrillas are not motivated by any loyalty to Saddam.
"Even if the head of the snake is cut off, the rest of the snake continues to move for a while," Hertling said. "There may be an increasing desire to execute attacks."
Suicide bombers attacked two police stations in the north and west of the capital on Monday. The car bombings left eight policemen dead and at least 17 wounded.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi was reported as saying that Saddam can get a fair trial in his home country.
"I think the trial will be just and fair because all parties are interested in making it fair," spokesman Entifadh Qanbar told British Broadcasting Corp. TV.
"It will also send the right message to have a trial conducted in Iraq by Iraqis to heal the wounds of those victims or the families of the victims," he said.
President Bush promised a fair, public trial for Saddam on Monday but did not explicitly endorse the Iraqi tribunal.
Human rights groups have expressed concern at some Iraqi predictions of a swift trial and a swift execution of Saddam, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United Nations could not support bringing the former dictator before a tribunal that might sentence him to death.