BAGHDAD, 15 June 2003 — Operation Peninsula Strike to mop up resistance to US occupation in northern Iraq has left at least 113 dead in a week, according to US and Iraqi sources. US forces killed 82 combatants at a desert training camp at Sahl, near the border with Syria, a Muslim imam from a neighboring village told AFP yesterday. “In total 82 people died in the camp,” including at least one non-Iraqi, said Sheikh Gharbi Abdul Aziz, imam of the main mosque at Rawa, a few kilometers from Sahl.
He said he had taken part in the burial of the 82 bodies after fighting erupted Thursday at dawn at the suspected terrorist training camp. The US military reported killing 27 Iraqis after clashes broke out late Thursday when an armored patrol attached to the US 4th Infantry Division came under rocket propelled grenade attack near Balad, about 80 kilometers northeast of Baghdad. US Central Command said tanks returned fire and the attacking force was then pursued with tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and AH-64 Apache helicopters.
The imam said villagers had carried 60 bodies from the camp and seven more from the nearby site where a US helicopter came down the same day. They were all buried at Rawa cemetery, 350 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. Bottles had been stuck in the sand over the graves bearing the names of those who have been identified. Osama Mahfudh Salem was said to be from Yemen, Abdessattar Mohammad from Falluja, a conservative Sunni town west of the Iraqi capital, which has seen sustained anti-US violence.
At the camp, an AFP correspondent saw 15 more graves marked by wooden sticks, as the imam had described. “When they came to the village they never did us any harm,” said Abdul Hadi Mahmud, who runs a garage. US Central Command said a US Apache helicopter was apparently shot down by hostile fire in western Iraq on Thursday but that its two crew members were not injured. “Two additional Apache helicopters assisted in engaging irregular forces in the vicinity of the downed aircraft,” a Centcom statement added.
As the biggest operation raged on, a senior oil ministry official told AFP damage to the oil pipeline between Iraq and Turkey, the main export route from the northern fields, could be repaired in two days.
US forces would “continue the operation” launched Sunday night “until we have restored peace and prosperity to the people of Iraq,” Maj. Daniel Barnett told AFP at a camp near Dhuluiya, 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. “We have been harassed by small arms fire ... and the purpose of our operation is to prevent the harassment from enemy factions in the area,” he said.
Fighting was concentrated in areas north of Baghdad, where many people still express sympathy for Saddam. Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, commander of coalition ground forces in Iraq, said Friday attacks on US forces appeared to be organized locally by former elements of the ousted regime.
As part of the sweep, four Iraqis died in Dhuluiya during a hunt for “Chemical Ali,” Hassan Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam, witnesses told AFP. On Thursday, the 173rd Airborne Brigade raided another suspected stronghold near the northern city of Kirkuk, apprehending 74 “suspected Al-Qaeda sympathizers,” Central Command said. Before dawn the same day, another US force raided a suspected terrorist training camp in western Iraq near the border with Syria, striking it from the air and ground.
The US military said it was interrogating 74 people to determine whether they were active members of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network. “Initial indications are that they are Al-Qaeda sympathizers,” a US Army spokesman said. “What we’re trying to do is validate that through the interrogation process.”
Meanwhile, Saddam, whose fate is unknown, reportedly issued an ultimatum to foreigners to leave Iraq and threatened attacks in countries and on planes of the US-led coalition. A letter purportedly signed by him and published yesterday in the London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, warned “all foreign citizens and those who came with the cowardly occupiers ... to leave Iraq.”
It said they should leave “before next June 17.” That may have been an indication of a mistake in the date, which is more likely to be July 17, the anniversary of the 1968 coup that brought Saddam’s now deposed Baath Party to power, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abdul Bari Atwan.
The authenticity of the letter, dated June 12 and the fifth to be published by Al-Quds Al-Arabi since Saddam was toppled by the US-led coalition in April, could not be confirmed.
“The army, Republican Guard, Al-Faruk Brigades, Liberation Group, Baath Party members and Al-Hussein groups are thus waging a real battle ... to expel the invading infidel forces from Iraq. “We tell all the countries of the world: pull your nationals out of Iraq. We are in a liberation battle, and if you ignore this you will be responsible for their lives.”
