World

U.S., Iraqis Launch Major Attack

October 1, 2004 / 5:48 AM EDT / CBS/AP

U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major attack against the insurgent stronghold of Samarra early Friday, securing government and police buildings in the city, the U.S. command said.

The offensive came in response to "repeated and unprovoked attacks by anti-Iraqi forces" against Iraqi and coalition forces, the military said in a statement. Its aim was to kill or capture insurgents in the city, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"Unimpeded access throughout the city for Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Forces is nonnegotiable," said the statement, which was issued early Friday in Baghdad.

Troops of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, Iraq's national guard and its regular army took part in the nighttime assault.

It said insurgent attacks and acts of intimidation against the people of Samarra had undermined the security situation in the city, regarded as one of the top three insurgency strongholds in Iraq, along with Fallujah and the Baghdad slum known as Sadr City.

Along with U.S. troops, soldiers from the 202nd Iraqi National Guard Battalion and 7th Iraqi Army Battalion were taking part in the operation.

The statement provided no further details of the fighting.

In other recent developments:

A series of bombs killed 35 children and seven adults Thursday as U.S. troops handed out candy at a government ceremony to inaugurate a new sewage treatment plant. The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighborhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict in Iraq began 17 months ago.

Also Thursday, the Arab news network Al-Jazeera showed video of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants. Al-Jazeera said the 10 -- six Iraqis, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women — were taken by The Islamic Army in Iraq, a group that has claimed responsibility for seizing two French journalists.

The U.S. targeted a suspected terrorist safehouse in Fallujah, killing at least four Iraqis. The military said in a statement that intelligence reports indicated the house was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi citizens. "Significant secondary explosions were observed during the impact indicating a large cache of illegal ordinance was stored in the safe house," the statement said. Explosions continued in the northeastern side of the city for hours.

On the outskirts of Baghdad, insurgents fired a rocket Thursday at a logistical support area for coalition forces, killing one soldier and wounding seven. No further information was disclosed - including whether it was a U.S. soldier or not.

CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports U.S. officials concede they are not defeating or even containing the insurgency in Iraq, which goes deeper than the daily attacks and kidnappings seen on television. A report prepared for the State Department by a private security firm says "a general trend is emerging of

attacks spreading

into historically less active areas."

A car bomb targeting the police chief in the northern city of Talafar killed at least four people and wounded 16, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

Earlier on Thursday, U.S. forces attacked a suspected safehouse used by an al Qaeda-linked group in Fallujah, the military said.

Intelligence reports indicated the house was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said in a statement, adding that the followers were planning attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi citizens.

"Significant secondary explosions were observed during the impact indicating a large cache of illegal ordinance was stored in the safehouse," the statement said. Explosions continued in the northeastern part of the city for hours.

Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four others damaged in the strike.

At least four Iraqis were killed — including two women and one child — and eight wounded, said Dr. Ahmed Khalil at Fallujah General Hospital.

"Multinational forces take great care to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties," the military said in the statement. "Terrorists' placement of weapons caches in homes, schools, hospitals and mosques continue to put innocent civilians at risk."