Naseer Al-Nahr, Asharq Al-Awsat

BAGHDAD, 18 November 2003 — US troops unleashed tank and mortar fire at suspected guerrilla hide-outs in Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit yesterday killing six resistance fighters, after the broadcast of an audio tape purportedly from the fugitive ex-leader urging holy war.

Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division fanned out through Tikrit, and the ground shook as US shells hit positions which commanders said were used by guerrillas to fire rockets or mortar bombs at the US base in the town.

Flares lit up the sky and attack helicopters clattered overhead. In one attack, four M1A1 Abrams tanks perched on top of a desert cliff fired on targets in the fields below.

The division’s spokesman, Lt. Col. William MacDonald, said the barrage comprised 38 coordinated attacks, and included firing a GPS-guided missile with a 500-pound (230 kg) warhead at what he said was a guerrilla sanctuary south of Tikrit.

MacDonald said the coordinated attacks destroyed 15 guerrilla safe houses, three training camps and 14 mortar firing positions. Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division also killed six fighters who attacked them in separate incidents, he said.

The US Army said yesterday it had new evidence that Izzat Ibrahim, a key deputy of Saddam Hussein, was behind some deadly attacks on American forces.

“We are getting more intelligence that suggests he was directly implicated in the killing of some coalition soldiers,” spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told a news conference in Baghdad.

Two US soldiers were killed and two wounded in attacks north of Baghdad yesterday, the US military said. A military spokesman said the soldiers were killed in separate attacks early yesterday near the town of Balad, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

On the Syrian border, the army said, US forces apprehended six “suspected foreign fighters”. “During their detention, one of the individuals attacked a US soldier with a knife and was shot and killed,” the army said. The other five were detained.

US troops hunting guerrillas have captured a former Iraqi special forces officer and militia leader suspected of staging attacks on American troops in the “Sunni triangle” region.

The army said Kathim Mohammad Faris, described as “a former Iraqi Special Forces officer and a Fedayeen leader who is believed to be responsible for improvised explosive device attacks and ambushes on coalition forces”, was captured in the town of Habbaniya on Saturday.

Meanwhile hundreds of members of a new Iraqi police force held demonstrations yesterday in central Baghdad demanding several months of wages they said had not been paid.

US administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, yesterday described Saddam Hussein as a “voice from the wilderness” and said the ousted president needed to be captured or killed.

— Additional input from agencies