Rockets Hit Iraq Housing Complex, Kill 5

Rockets slammed into an Iraqi housing complex near the Baghdad international airport and a nearby U.S. military base, killing at least five people and wounding 16, including two U.S. soldiers, officials said.

American troops acting on strong evidence arrested six Iraqi suspects Monday in the vicinity of the apparent launching sites, a military official said.

The brazen attack followed a weekend in which U.S. and Iraqi officials touted the security gains of a year-old operation in Baghdad that included an influx of some 30,000 extra American troops. Rocket and mortar attacks were once a daily occurrence but have tapered off with a general decline in violence in the capital.

Twelve 107 mm rockets fell in and around the airport and the nearby Camp Victory, the main U.S. military base on the western outskirts of Baghdad, the U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the official release of the information.

He said Camp Victory was hit and two soldiers suffered light injuries but that most of the casualties were in a housing complex for airport employees, about half a mile from the airport. Camp Victory, on the western outskirts of Baghdad, is the site of the main U.S. military headquarters.

Five Iraqis were killed and 14 wounded including five children, one baby, one adult and a teenager who were taken to a nearby U.S. medical facility, the official said.

The U.S. military did not respond with fire but sent a team in the direction of the launching sites, arresting six people in the area, the official said. One unexploded rocket also was recovered, according to the military.

Residents in the housing complex said it includes 250 to 300 trailers primarily occupied by airport employees. They said two trailers were destroyed in the attack.

"One of these two families lost four of its sons, three of them were buried under the debris," one resident said, adding that killed were between 10 and 20 years old.

Iraqi police earlier reported that six to 13 rockets also struck the U.S.-protected Green Zone on Monday afternoon, but the U.S. military official denied that report.

In Other Developments:

A roadside bombing in the northwestern city of Mosul killed three civilians and wounded four others, police said. The U.S. military has described Mosul as the last major urban stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraqi officials spent the weekend celebrating the successes of a crackdown that began a year ago and saw the eventual buildup of some 30,000 extra American troops. But the U.S. military has been more cautious, warning that Shiite and Sunni extremists remain a serious threat.

Earlier Monday, U.S. troops acting on a tip captured a Shiite militia leader suspected of being a powerful criminal boss and providing Iranian weapons to fighters in western Baghdad, the military said.

The arrest occurred a day after a U.S. military spokesman said that in the past week, Iraqi and U.S. forces had captured 212 weapons caches around the country, with growing evidence of an Iranian link.

"This is a significant capture of a top special groups leader," said Navy Capt. Vic Beck, a military spokesman. "Special groups" is a term the U.S. uses to describe Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militias that it says have broken with anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and refuse to follow his cease-fire order, which expires at the end of this month.

The detained man was reportedly in charge of all Shiite militia fighters in the western half of Baghdad. He was allegedly responsible for providing weapons to militia members, including armor-piercing bombs that U.S. officials say come from Iran. Tehran denies the allegation.

The suspect also allegedly selected fighters for paramilitary training and was an associate of other senior criminal leaders involved in attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces, the military said.

Separately, the leader of a U.S.-allied Sunni Arab group said his fighters were returning to posts they abandoned Saturday in protest over what he said was a U.S. air strike the previous day that killed three of the group's members in the village of Jurf al-Sakr, south of Baghdad.

It was the latest claim of a mistaken killing of civilians or U.S.-allied fighters by American forces. The cases have raised concern about future cracks in Sunni cooperation with U.S. forces, which the Pentagon credits as key to the sharp drop in violence in recent months throughout Iraq.

Sheik Sabah al-Janabi, the chief of the local Awakening Council, as the groups are known, ordered a three-day walkout, demanded that the U.S. military apologize, provide compensation for relatives of the victims and promise it won't happen again. He reversed that decision Monday.

"Our fighters have resumed their patrolling and their checkpoint duties as of today after the Americans responded to our demands," he said without elaborating.

Col. Tom James, commander of the 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, which is responsible for the area, acknowledged U.S. forces killed two members of the Awakening Council and a third man but said they were acting in self-defense after coming under small-arms fire during an operation targeting an extremist.

He said American troops take great care to pinpoint Awakening Council checkpoints so they can avoid targeting them during operations, but claimed the killed men had left their posts and were mistaken for insurgents.

"You're not a Son of Iraq if you're engaging coalition forces and are not at a checkpoint," he said during a telephone interview, using the military term for the U.S.-allied fighters.

He also stressed the importance of getting the Sunnis to return to their posts to maintain the security successes in the former al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold.

"There's always a threat to that area and we cannot afford for them to come off of those checkpoints," he said.

Iowan Killed In Diyala Province

A soldier from northwest Iowa has been killed in Iraq, his family said Monday.

Spc. Chad Groepper, 21, of Kingsley was shot Sunday morning in the Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, leaving behind a wife and 4-month-old daughter, the family said.

"He wasn't scared of anything," Dave Groepper, the soldier's father, told The Associated Press. "That's why he was infantry."

The father called Chad Groepper an "action figure" who always wanted to be in the front line. He had been serving in Iraq for nearly one year with an Army infantry unit from Fort Lewis, Wash., and was scheduled to return to the United States as early as May.

"We had just been counting the days until he came home," Darcy Groepper told the Des Moines Register.

Dave Groepper said the military told him Sunday his son was fatally shot in the head during combat. The Department of Defense had not announced Chad Groepper's death by late Monday afternoon.

Chad Groepper enlisted in the Army after graduating in 2004 from Kingsley-Pierson High School, his mother said.

Kingsley Mayor Wayne Plendl said his community of 1,200 people is in shock about Chad Groepper's death.

Plendl had known Groepper for his work on a local farm operation and many people had known him while he worked at a plumbing shop, the mayor said.

"We are pretty close and everybody knew this young man well," Plendl said. "It's such a tragic thing."

Funeral arrangements are pending.
By Kim Gamel