BAGHDAD, 24 March 2005 — A raid by US and Iraqi forces on a suspected rebel training camp left 85 militants dead, Iraq said yesterday, reporting the single biggest one-day death toll for rebels in months and the latest in a series of blows to the country’s insurgency.
Politicians helping shape a post-election government expected within days said negotiators are considering naming a Sunni Arab as defense minister in a move aimed at bringing Sunni Arabs into the political process — and perhaps deflate the insurgency they lead.
The US military announced late Tuesday that its air and ground forces backed Iraqi commandos during a noontime raid on a suspected guerrilla training camp near Lake Tharthar in central Iraq. Seven commandos died in fighting, the US military said, but they didn’t give a death toll for rebels.
Iraq’s government said in a statement yesterday that 85 rebels died in the clash — the largest number of rebels killed in a single battle since the US Marine-led November attack on the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah that left more than 1,000 dead. On Sunday, US forces killed 26 assailants after they were ambushed south of Baghdad.
Also yesterday, a mortar shell landed on a primary school in western Baghdad, killing at least one child and injuring three others, according to a police official who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution by attackers.
Kids fled the schoolhouse, abandoning backpacks and books on desks littered with glass shards. One teacher wept outside as parents rushed to collect their children.
Hours later, a policeman attempting to defuse a roadside bomb in Baghdad died when the charge exploded and another officer suffered injuries, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.
On the political front, Abbas Hassan Mousa Al-Bayati, a top member of the United Iraqi Alliance, said negotiators from his Shiite-dominated bloc and a Kurdish coalition could tap a Sunni Arab to head the Ministry of Defense, which oversees the Iraqi Army battling the insurgency.
— With input from agencies
