- HAWIJA, Iraq (Reuters) -
The U.S. military denied reports that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, the most
wanted man in Iraq after Saddam Hussein and alleged mastermind of guerrilla
resistance, had been captured in a raid Tuesday.
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- It said 27 suspected guerrillas were caught when up to
1,000 soldiers stormed into the small town of Hawija near the northern
city of Kirkuk before dawn, but the man with a $10 million price on his
head wasn't one of them.
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- "He was definitely not captured in today's mission,"
Major Doug Vincent told reporters who accompanied troops on the raid that
aimed to find suspects behind guerrilla attacks on U.S. forces in the "Sunni
triangle" region of fiercest resistance.
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- Earlier, sources in Iraq's Governing Council had said
Ibrahim had been either seized or killed.
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- The raid came as Spain mourned seven intelligence officers
killed near Baghdad but the government vowed to stay the course in Iraq,
another U.S. soldier died in a bombing and other allies agonized over the
cost in blood of the occupation.
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- A U.S. soldier was killed by a roadside bomb near the
tense town of Samarra Tuesday, the 189th to die in fighting since President
Bush declared major combat over on May 1.
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- Kirkuk's police chief, speaking as the Hawija raid went
on late into the day, had not given up hope Ibrahim had been found.
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- "The possibility we have Izzat Ibrahim is more than
80 percent, but I can't say for sure whether he has been killed or captured
yet," Torhan Abulrahman said,
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- He said U.S. forces and Iraqi police had mounted the
joint sweep after information from one of Ibrahim's wives, captured earlier
this month, suggested he was in the area.
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- Ibrahim's detention would have been a major coup for
the U.S.-led coalition. A veteran political ally of Saddam, he is sixth
on the U.S. list of top Iraqi fugitives, and all in the top five except
for Saddam have been killed or captured.
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- The U.S. military said last month he was directly involved
in attacks on U.S. troops and put the bounty on his head. A reward of $25
million is still on offer for information leading to the capture or death
of Saddam.
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- Hawija, a cold, muddy town of mainly Sunni Arabs, was
full of anti-U.S. and pro-Saddam graffiti and posters, with slogans like
"Saddam is the pride of the Arabs," "Death to the agents,"
and "Don't be armor for the Americans."
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- SPAIN SAYS TROOPS WILL STAY
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- The occupying forces have suffered relentless guerrilla
attacks but Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, a staunch European
ally of Bush despite the war's unpopularity at home, ruled out taking his
forces home.
-
- "Withdrawal can never be an option in the face of
terror. If we withdrew, all the efforts we have made until now would have
been in vain. It would strengthen the power and strategy of the terrorists.
It would be giving in to their blackmail," he told parliament just
hours after a state funeral for the dead agents.
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- "SEE THIS THROUGH"
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- A poll by a Spanish think-tank a month ago said 85 percent
of people thought the Iraq war "was not worth it" but were evenly
split on the presence of 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq now.
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- Weekend attacks also killed two South Korean contractors,
two Japanese diplomats, their Iraqi driver, a Colombian contractor and
two U.S. soldiers.
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- U.S. troops said they killed 54 guerrillas in a battle
on Sunday to fend off ambushes on armored convoys carrying banknotes in
the Iraqi town Samarra.
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- Thailand said it might withdraw its 443 medical and engineering
troops if it became too dangerous to work.
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- In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insisted Japan
would send troops, although Japanese media reported approval could be delayed
after the two diplomats died near Tikrit.
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- Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's special representative to
Iraq, said London and Washington would "see this through to the end."
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