Heavily armed U.S. Army forces stormed into a village near Tikrit before dawn Thursday, seizing more than 200 prisoners, including one man on the United States' "most-wanted" list of former Iraqi officials.
U.S. troops encountered no resistance during the 5-hour sweep, officers said.
U.S. officials said one of those arrested Thursday was identified as being on the "top 55" list. Two other Iraqi army generals and one general from Saddam's security forces who had disguised himself as a shepherd were also caught.
"We're going to continue to hunt them until they get so tired of running that they give themselves up or we catch them," said Maj. Mike Silverman, operations officer for the 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry, the Army division that staged the raid.
The operation had been planned for a week after U.S. officials received a tip that the men were in the area.
It involved more than 500 soldiers, who sealed off the town and went from house to house. None of the targets was identified.
Seventeen bricks of plastic explosive were seized from one house, military officials said, and one man was apprehended in a sniper's perch toting an AK-47 assault rifle, AP reported.
Among the 200 people taken into custody were several teenage boys. Each was restrained and ordered to sit or kneel on the roads outside their homes.
Eighteen Bradley fighting vehicles, 12 Howitzers and 35 armored Humvees secured the area as forces moved in. Six boats patrolled the nearby Tigris river during the maneuver, and Apache helicopters hovered overhead.
Two explosions were heard after the raid from an area close to the village. The military said they believed they were mortar rounds. "It went a lot smoother than we thought," said Lt. Col. Mark Woemper.
At 2 a.m. Thursday, troops formed a cordon around the outer perimeter of a 9-block area. About 200 houses and outlying buildings were searched before the sweep ended at 7 a.m.
In one house, a large stack of brand-new Iraqi currency was found, the military said. At another, a soldier emerged carrying a camouflage military uniform top.
In an unrelated incident early Thursday on the Tigris River north of Tikrit, U.S. forces saw a boat being loaded with cases of unidentified materials and fired a flare in warning.
The Americans came under fire from boat and fired back; they said they believed they killed everybody aboard. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
