- (Agencies) -- The commander of US ground forces in Iraq
today said that his soldiers had become a "magnet" for foreign
terrorists who wanted to strike at America.
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- Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said the sophistication
of the guerilla attacks, which Washington customarily blames on the former
regime's loyalists, had increased over the last month.
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- "We have to understand that we have a multiple-faceted
conflict going on here in Iraq. We've got terrorist activity, we've got
former regime leadership, we have criminals, and we have some hired assassins
that are attacking our soldiers on a daily basis," he told CNN.
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- Shortly after he spoke, two US soldiers in Baghdad were
seriously injured when a man dropped a grenade from a road bridge onto
their canvas-top Humvee as it passed below along Palestine Street.
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- Guerrilla-style attacks on US forces have killed 49 soldiers
in Iraq since the US president, George Bush, declared major combat over
on May 1.
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- Lt Gen Sanchez did not elaborate on the nationalities
of the individuals behind such attacks but said there was no evidence any
country was sponsoring the fighters.
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- "[There] is what I would call a terrorist magnet
where America, being present here in Iraq, creates a target of opportunity
if you will," he explained.
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- Aside from a group linked to al-Qaida claiming responsibility
for some attacks, gunmen who describe themselves as members of the Fedayeen
militia have said they will avenge the deaths of Uday and Qusay Saddam
Hussein on US forces and Iraqis who collaborate with them.
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- Washington meanwhile hopes to end the attacks by capturing
or killing Saddam Hussein and his senior aides. US officials believe Iraqis
will be more willing to cooperate with the occupation armies if they can
be certain their former leader will not return and take revenge.
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- General Richard Myers, the chairman of US joint chiefs
of staff, today said the day when Saddam was in US hands was drawing closer
and it was "just a matter of time" before he was found.
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- "There's been a big rise in the numbers [of informers]
coming forward, providing evidence of weapons caches and of where people
are," he told reporters in Baghdad.
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- But the operation to snare Saddam is not without casualties.
Five civilians were last night reportedly killed in a raid on a house in
Baghdad's al-Mansour district that its owner claimed the US believed was
sheltering Saddam.
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- Rabeeah Amin, a tribal leader, said the soldiers had
broken down the door and ransacked his villa.
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- "I was told they had been tipped off that Saddam
was hiding in my house, that he was in fact my guest," he told Reuters.
"But I know nothing about this."
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- A US soldier at a nearby hospital said five bodies and
at least eight wounded had been brought in from the scene of the raid.
An Iraqi policeman said all the dead had been in cars fired on by troops
as they drove through the area.
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- In another series of raids intended to capture the leaders
of the former regime troops of the 4th Infantry Division yesterday moved
in on three farms around Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
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- Hundreds of soldiers, backed by Bradley fighting vehicles,
surrounded the farms as Apache attack helicopters hovered above. No shots
were fired as about 25 men emerged from the houses peacefully.
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- The raid was prompted the capture last week of a group
of men in Tikrit believed to include as many as 10 of Saddam's bodyguards.
Soldiers learned from them that Saddam's new security chief - and possibly
the dictator himself - were staying at one of the farms.
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- "The noose is tightening around these guys,"
said Colonel James Hickey, a brigade commander. "They're running out
of places to hide, and it's becoming difficult for them to move because
we're everywhere. Any day now we're going to knock on their door, or kick
in their door, and they know it."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1007495,00.html
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