U.S., Iraqi Forces Arrest 200
U.S. and Iraqi forces encircling the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar arrested 200 suspected insurgents — most of them foreign fighters — in a sweep through a militant-held district in the northern city near the Syrian border, the Iraqi military announced Thursday.
Iraqi army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed said 150 of those arrested Wednesday were Arabs from Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Jordan.
The joint forces have reported heavy battles on the outskirts of the city and several deadly bombings that have mainly killed civilians. Iraqi authorities reported most of the civilian population had fled the city, which is 260 miles north of Baghdad and about 35 miles the Syria border.
"Our forces arrested 150 non-Iraqi Arabs yesterday in addition to 50 Iraqi terrorists with fake documents as they were trying to flee the city with the (civilian) families," Ahmed said.
"We ordered the families to evacuate the Sunni neighborhood of Sarai, which is believed the main stronghold of the insurgents," Ahmed said
Eight civilians were killed in the city Wednesday by a suicide car bomber at an Iraqi checkpoint, he said. On Thursday, the U.S. military said the combined American-Iraqi force had killed seven insurgents over the past two days.
In other developments:
Tal Afar is 90 percent Turkmen and about 70 percent of them are Sunnis. After the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the United States installed a largely Shiite leadership in the city, including the mayor and much of the police force.
The Sunni majority has complained of oppression by the government and have turned to the insurgents — who are mainly Sunnis — for protection.
Early Thursday, a militant Web site carried a videotape showing the destruction of a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle in Tal Afar. A U.S. military official said two Bradley's had been hit by roadside bombs in recent days and a soldier was killed.
On Wednesday, the U.S. military, acting on a tip, raided an isolated farmhouse outside Baghdad and rescued an American businessman held hostage for 10 months. The kidnappers, who had kept their captive bound and gagged.
The rescue coincided with two deadly bombings detonated around the southern city of Basra. A roadside bomb killed four private American security agents working for the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security. And an Interior Ministry official said 16 people were killed and 21 were injured in a car bombing at a restaurant in a central market.
Roy Hallums, 57, was "in good condition and is receiving medical care," a military statement said after U.S. forces freed him and an unidentified Iraqi from the farmhouse 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Baghdad.
Hallums, formerly of Newport Beach, California, was kidnapped at gunpoint from his office in the Mansour district of Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2004. At the time, he was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Co., supplying food to the Iraqi army. The kidnappers also seized a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis, but later freed them.
"Considering what he's been through, I understand he's in good condition," said Hallums' ex-wife, Susan Hallums, 53, of Corona, California.
More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq since the war began in March 2003; more than 30 have been killed.
Wednesday's roadside bombing, which killed the four security agents, was noteworthy because attacks against Americans around Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, are rare. The U.S. has only a minimal presence in the area. Also, Shiites, who are the dominant population in the south, have found themselves the political winners as new government structures take shape after the U.S.-led invasion.
In a statement posted on a Web site known as a clearing house of militant claims, al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bomb flipped the Americans' SUV onto its roof in a ravine alongside a highway near Basra, a major oil center that is under the control of Britain's 8,500-strong contingent.
The car bombing later Wednesday at a takeout restaurant in a central Basra market killed 16 and wounded 21, said an Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
The felafel restaurant is in the Hayaniyah district market, a Shiite section of the city, Basra police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi said. Two police vehicles and several nearby shops were destroyed in the blast.
Despite a peaceful postwar history in the south, violence has spiked in the past two months with attacks on Britons.