Active Unit News

4-18-03
U.S. Army unit attacks suspected paramilitary fighters north of Baghdad
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Army forces attacked an airfield north of Baghdad on Friday after images from an unmanned surveillance plane indicated the presence of paramilitary forces. Elsewhere in Iraq, FBI agents helped track stolen art treasures and U.S. troops investigated a tract of 1,500 unmarked graves. The attack by an armored unit of the 4th Infantry Division came after intelligence data from the unmanned plane indicated that 20 to 30 paramilitary fighters were loading ammunition into pickup trucks. The fighters were presumed to be members of Fedayeen militia that supported toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Abrams tanks and Bradley armored fighting vehicles advanced on the airfield, backed by mortar fire, as Apache and Blackhawk helicopters flew overhead. No information on casualties was immediately available. In Landstuhl, Germany, the seven American soldiers freed from Iraqi captivity last weekend made a brief public appearance on the balcony of their military hospital. Hospital officials said all seven are doing well, though three suffered gunshot wounds. Speaking for his six comrades, Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, 30, of Orlando, Fla., thanked Americans for their support. ''We're looking forward to coming home as soon as we possibly can,'' he said. ''I'd just like to remind everyone to say a special prayer for all those who are still fighting on the American fence. And, God bless America.'' In Washington, FBI Director Robert Mueller said experts from his agency have been deployed in Iraq to help find the antiquities stolen during recent looting of Baghdad museums and the national library. Interpol, the Paris-based international police organization, said Friday it also would send a team to Iraq to assist that effort. A separate contingent of FBI agents is reviewing the trove of regime documents recovered by U.S. troops in Iraq, looking for possible leads in the campaign against international terrorism and the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, Mueller said. Even as the search for illegal weapons expanded, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed doubts that any would be found until Iraqis provide the crucial tips. ''I think what will happen is we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it,'' Rumsfeld said. ''It is not like a treasure hunt where you just run around looking everywhere, hoping you find something.'' U.S. intelligence officials believe some senior members of Saddam's regime who may know about weapons programs have sought refuge in Syria. A State Department official indicated Thursday that Syria may be prepared to hand over some of those leaders. ''There might be some individuals who might be made available to us,'' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. As many as 1,000 people are believed to be involved in the U.S.-led effort to find illegal weapons, and thus corroborate prewar allegations made repeatedly by the Bush administration. U.S. troops have found suspicious chemicals and facilities at several sites, but tests on the materials have proved negative or inconclusive. Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq, has urged the U.S.-led coalition to allow his team back into the country, saying it would increase the credibility of any weapons discoveries. The team left Iraq just before the war after several months of inspections. In northern Iraq, American officials were examining a tract of about 1,500 unmarked graves near Kirkuk. Thousands of Kurdish men in that region disappeared during Saddam's rule - part of a drive to crush an independence movement - but it was not immediately clear whose corpses were in the graves. In Mosul, the largest city in the north, U.S. forces were trying to restore calm after two clashes this week in which - according to local hospital officials - U.S. Marines killed 17 Iraqis. ''Coalition troops on the ground are there to demonstrate to them that we are a liberating force, not an occupying force,'' said Navy Capt. Frank Thorp, a U.S. Central Command spokesman who described the situation in Mosul as ''tough.'' In Baghdad, Iraqi engineers supported by U.S. troops said they hope to have the city's biggest power plant going by Saturday. The lack of basic services such as power and water, along with the widespread lawlessness, has fueled resentment of the American forces. ''Without power, there is no peace,'' said Haifa Aziz, manager of a power substation. ''For hospitals, for schools, for the people, they need electricity.'' Electricity has been out in Baghdad since April 3. A U.S. Marine spokesman, Staff Sgt. Jose Guillen, said six diesel power plants are now back on line, each supplying electricity to about 500 homes. Baghdad was reported generally quiet on Friday, the Muslim holy day. ''We haven't had enemy contact in four days,'' said a Marine spokesman, Staff Sgt. John Jamison. But in a grim example of the recent lawlessness, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that some patients at a Baghdad psychiatric hospital were raped as looters ransacked the building during a three-day spree. The director of Al-Rashad Hospital told Red Cross representatives that the rapes occurred as looters made off with nearly everything in the hospital - burning what they could not take - between April 9 and 11. Another site devastated by looting was Baghdad's zoo - thieves stole birds and some mammals and opened the monkey cages, setting them free to roam the city. On Friday, a truck set out from Kuwait with seven tons of meat, vegetables and dried food for the animals, whose keepers fled when fighting broke out. ''The animals are starving right now,'' said Abdullah Onlanzi, who helped organize the shipment. ''I hope it will reach them as soon as possible.''