The U.S. military has detected an increase
in Iraqi Sunni cooperation in wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein.
U.S. officials said military units in central and northern Iraq have
been flooded by tips from Iraqis on Saddam loyalists and insurgency
operatives. They said Iraqis have also been responsive to U.S. patrols in
towns and cities in the Sunni Triangle.
On Monday, the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division captured an Iraqi
described as a high-ranking official from the Saddam regime. Several other
unidentified regime figures were said to have been captured and
interrogated.
[Sunni attacks, however, continued on Iraqi police forces. On Monday, two
car bombs were detonated in the Baghdad area, killing 10 people, Middle East Newsline reported.]
The U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division has reported increased
cooperation with Iraqi residents in the Anbar Province. The division, as
part of the "Task Force All American," said the cooperation facilitated a
search operation for insurgents in the Anbar province. In some cases, Iraqis
cooperated in locating and identifying insurgents.
U.S. Central Command officials said the task force conducted 25 tactical
checkpoints and eight cordon-and-search operations over Monday. The division
also completed 169 patrols, including 13 joint patrols with the Iraqi Border
Guard and Iraqi police.
Some of these patrols came under attack by Sunni insurgents, officials
said. But the rapid response of the task force as well as cooperation of
Iraqi pedestrians led to the killing of three and capture of 16 insurgents.
A U.S. soldier was also killed.
[On Tuesday, Israel disclosed that it sought to assassinate Saddam in
1992 during his stay in Tikrit. Officials said the operation was suspended
after an Israeli training exercise for special operations forces went awry
and five soldiers were killed.]
Iraqi cooperation was also reported amid Operation Panther Backroads,
meant to disrupt insurgency movement and halt smuggling. The mission was
launched on Monday by the airborne division's 3rd Brigade and so far two
insurgents were killed and 13 others were captured.
But U.S. commanders said information obtained from Iraqis as well as
from records seized from Saddam's lair near Tikrit have provided alerts on
Sunni attacks. They said the documents in Saddam's briefcase provided
information on the structure of the Sunni insurgency.
The capture of Saddam could also lead to a crisis in funding for the
insurgency, commanders said. They said although the Sunni insurgency has
adequate amounts of weapons and bombs, Saddam loyalists are expected to
encounter a funding shortfall by early 2004 as the United States exchanges
Iraq's currency.
