US troops exchanged fire with Iraqi fighters who threw at least six mortar rounds at them in downtown Tikrit, and arrested four people, including a suspected bomb maker, in severe fighting early Thursday.
In Tikrit, ousted leader Saddam Hussein's ancestral hometown, the mortar shells missed their targets, causing no injuries or damage, said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, commander of the 4th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 22nd Regiment, which patrols Tikrit.
According to the AP, an American reconnaissance patrol, responding to the mortar attack, was ambushed with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, directly opposite the 4th Infantry's sprawling headquarters in one of Saddam's former palaces.
Bradley fighting vehicles were called in as reinforcements, opening fire at the fighters as tracer bullets lit the night sky over Tikrit. A firefight ensued, and at least one house was on fire. Helicopters were heard hovering above.
Russell said there were no American casualties, and that one attacker might have been killed, as the rest of the Iraqi fighters disappeared.
"When you have such an incident, it appears to be a spike in activity. But in reality, it's a decline," Russell said. "The enemy fire was not accurate at all. We see it as militarily insignificant."
Meanwhile, also Thursday, American forces, acting on a tip from an Iraqi, raided a house in Tikrit and detained four people, including a suspected bomb maker. In addition, weapons and ammunition and a box of explosives, wires, clocks, nails and other bomb-making material were also seized during the raid.
"It's not so much the amount, but the type of things we've got," Russell said.
Col. James Hickey, commander of the 4th Infantry's 1st Brigade, said the man surrendered without a fight after being called out of his house. He was believed to be involved in bomb making activities in the Tikrit area and was being interrogated, he said.
Hickey said the mortars that were fired into Tikrit were traced to a spot where the Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Regiment, was sent to investigate when it came under attack.
"The enemy is using very inaccurate, indiscipline fire. It gave us their location," he said. "We engulfed the area with tracer bullets. At the minimum, the enemy has withdrawn," he said, adding the Iraqi fighters might have suffered casualties.
Elsewhere, a US convoy came under attack early Thursday when unidentified assailants fired three rocket-propelled grenades at a tank, witnesses said.
One witness, Mohammed Salah, told AFP that at around 7:00 am (local time), a convoy of tanks and armoured vehicles passed through the center of Fallujah.
"Unknown people fired three RPGs at the convoy. One hit a tank and another struck a nearby house," he said.
Salah said the tank caught fire and that troops stopped the convoy to put out the flames. There were no casualties.
A spokeswoman for the US military in Iraq said she was unable to confirm the attack. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
