Active Unit News

U.S. "Ivy Needle" operation hunts Saddam loyalists
By Andrew Cawthorne
TIKRIT, Iraq, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Some 2,500 U.S. troops with tanks and helicopters fanned out across Iraq's heartland of support for toppled dictator Saddam Hussein on Wednesday to smash guerrilla networks resisting the American-led occupation. Aimed at penetrating remote rural areas and parts of towns so far barely reached by U.S. soldiers, the army hoped "Operation Ivy Needle" would deprive Saddam of people to rely on and places to take refuge. "That is our goal. After this, it is going to be difficult for him to hide, for his support network to operate properly," said Major Josslyn Aberle, at the headquarters of 4th Infantry Division in Saddam's home town Tikrit. Faced with mounting criticism at home and a rising death toll in Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday vowed "there will be no retreat" from Iraq. But embarrassingly for Washington, Saddam has now been on the run for four-and-a-half months and has broadcast a series of calls to arms against the occupation. He is believed to be in disguise and moving between safe houses every few hours. "Saddam is a master of hiding. If you look at his history, he had 30 years' of practice, doubles running all over the place, secret places and so on," Aberle said. In the second day of the operation, troops conducted scores of raids across the three provinces controlled by their 26,000-man division stretching from north of Baghdad to the Kurdish-populated mountains and the eastern border Iran. Crucially, the area includes the so-called "Sunni Triangle" where support for Saddam, himself a Sunni Muslim, was strongest during his rule, and where anti-American resistance is currently the fiercest. U.S. commanders believe Saddam is there. "Our intention is to deny sanctuary to former regime loyalists, Baath Party members, Fedayeen, non-compliant forces and paramilitary gangs," Aberle said. "OPERATION JIMMY HOFFA" "Ivy Needle" began in earnest on Tuesday with a raid in the town of Khalis, nicknamed "Operation Jimmy Hoffa" after a U.S. labour leader who disappeared in 1975 after a scheduled lunch with a pair of mafia leaders. The raid netted 24 suspected members of a criminal gang accused of attacking American forces and Iraqi police. In a preparatory, two-week intelligence-gathering phase before the operation, 390 Iraqis were detained in 95 raids. Another 27 were detained overnight, several stashes of arms found, and 21 million Iraqi dinars (about $11,700) confiscated in full-scale "Ivy Needle" raids around the region, Aberle said. One Iraqi was also shot dead in Tikrit. "Wherever we get intelligence, we will act on it," Aberle said. "Ivy Needle" would continue as long as necessary with no fixed time limit, she said. A reconstruction phase would follow. "We are not just about raids and patrols. This is nation-building. We'll be going in afterwards to help reconstruct schools, hospitals and other facilities," Aberle said. U.S. raids cause huge resentment among Iraqis, with many saying the troops frequently arrest or even kill the wrong people, and sometimes use offensive, humiliating tactics when they burst into homes. In Tikrit on Tuesday, local sheikhs cooperating with the Americans harangued a military commander with complaints about raid tactics.
08/27/03 06:25 ET
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited.

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