- BAGHDAD (Reuters) -- A bomb
by a fuel truck set off a huge fireball in which at least 17 people were
killed in Baghdad Wednesday, as violence gripped Iraq in the wake of the
capture of Saddam Hussein.
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- Thousands of U.S. troops swooped on a heavily anti-American
town north of Baghdad to flush out insurgents as President Bush said Saddam,
held by U.S. forces at an undisclosed location, deserved to die.
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- Shortly after dawn, the bomb in the Bayya'a district
of Baghdad caused a huge ball of fire that caught a minibus and several
civilian cars packed with people heading to work, police said.
-
- At least 17 people, mostly passengers, were killed and
around 16 others badly burned in the inferno, they said.
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- It was not immediately clear whether the bomb had been
in the truck itself, or whether it had gone off at the roadside causing
the truck carrying fuel to explode.
-
- Roadside bombs are a favorite weapon of anti-American
guerrillas who use them to attack U.S. military patrols. Civilians are
also caught up in such attacks.
-
- The violence was another blow to any hopes that the capture
of Saddam last Saturday near his hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad,
would ease guerrilla attacks.
-
- In a continued crackdown on guerrillas, American troops
raided a house in the town of Samarra and captured 73 suspected insurgents
Tuesday, including the leader of a guerrilla cell, the U.S. Army said.
-
- It said early Wednesday that the offensive was stepped
up overnight to isolate and eliminate former members of Saddam's regime
and other cells fighting the U.S.-led coalition and seeking to destabilize
Iraq.
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- The U.S. 4th Infantry Division, based in Tikrit, was
running Operation Ivy Blizzard in Samarra, along with Iraqi security forces,
the army said.
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- U.S. TROOPS RING TOWN
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- Two army brigades ringed the town, cutting it off from
the outside world while soldiers of a third brigade made house-to-house
searches. They also scoured workshops and junkyards at the industrial sector
of town.
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- At times they used hammers and demolition charges to
open doors at shops or homes.
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- Five people were arrested Wednesday and a small amount
of weapons were seized.
-
- In Washington, Bush said in an ABC News interview Tuesday
that Saddam deserved the "ultimate penalty" for his iron-fisted
rule of Iraq and that Iraqis should conduct the trial.
-
- "Let's just see what penalty he gets, but I think
he ought to receive the ultimate penalty (death)...for what he has done
to his people," Bush said.
-
- U.S. officials have said any trial is still some way
off.
-
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) had taken over the interrogation of Saddam, whose whereabouts
are being kept secret. He would not say whether the ousted Iraqi leader
was cooperating.
-
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped Saddam
might lift the lid on his alleged illegal weapons program. Blair has been
under fire at home for the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction
he used as the main reason for attacking Iraq.
-
- But Washington got a boost for its efforts to stabilize
the country and its economy when Germany and France joined the United States
in saying Tuesday they were prepared to offer substantial debt relief to
Baghdad. This followed visits by U.S. special envoy James Baker to the
two main European opponents of the war that toppled Saddam.
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- The size of reduction in Iraq's $120 billion debt will
be agreed later.
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- At U.N. headquarters in New York, Iraq's foreign minister
accused the world body of failing his country by leaving Saddam in power
for decades. He appealed for the United Nations to resume a leading role
in Baghdad immediately.
-
- - Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy in Tikrit, this
report also contains media pool material
-
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