Thousand US troops raid Iraqi town

11.45am - By ANDREW HAMMOND

HAWIJA - Up to 1000 US troops swept into an Iraqi town on Tuesday to hunt for masterminds of a relentless guerrilla war and caught 27 suspects, but said their most wanted man after Saddam Hussein was not one of them.

As Spain buried seven intelligence agents slain in Iraq but vowed to stay the course, Washington said nearly all its allies providing troops for the occupation had pledged to stay on despite a slew of such deadly attacks.

After US soldiers raided the small town of Hawija near Kirkuk in the north, sources in Iraq's Governing Council said Saddam's right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri had been captured or killed but the Americans said he was not among the detainees.

"He was definitely not captured in today's mission," Major Doug Vincent told reporters who accompanied troops in Hawija.

US military officials hailed the raid and said suspected guerrilla leaders caught included the alleged leaders of two cells of the Saddam Fedayeen militia and were "quality targets".

US forces have come under fire daily since toppling Saddam in April, and a weekend of bloody attacks has left their allies agonising over the cost in blood of the occupation.

In a state funeral Spain buried the intelligence agents killed at the weekend near Baghdad. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said he would not be deflected from aiding the occupation.

"Withdrawal can never be an option in the face of terror. If we withdrew, all the efforts we have made until now would have been in vain. It would strengthen the power and strategy of the terrorists. It would be giving in to their blackmail," he told parliament a few hours after the funeral.

A recent Spanish poll said 85 per cent of people thought the Iraq war "was not worth it" but Spaniards were evenly split on the presence of 1300 Spanish troops in Iraq now.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, meeting other Nato defence ministers in Brussels, said nearly all of the 18 troop-providing countries had promised to keep them there.

"Most if not all have pledged to stay on and to work to sustain their contributions, and to not be dissuaded by the fact that there have been some high-profile casualties," he told reporters.

Attacks last weekend also killed two South Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats, their Iraqi driver, a Colombian contractor and two US soldiers.

Another US soldier was killed on Tuesday by a roadside bomb near the tense town of Samarra, the 189th to die in fighting since President George W Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

US troops said they killed 54 guerrillas in a battle on Sunday to fend off ambushes on armoured convoys carrying banknotes in the town.

Spain's resolve was shared by Britain, whose Iraq envoy Jeremy Greenstock said London and Washington would "see this through to the end".

But Thailand said it might withdraw its 443 medical and engineering troops in Iraq if it became too dangerous to work.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insisted Japan would send troops, although Japanese media reported approval could be delayed after the two diplomats died near Tikrit.

Tuesday's raid was in the "Sunni triangle", a region inhabited by Sunni Muslims, a minority to which Saddam belonged, and which has shown the fiercest resistance to occupation.

A cold, muddy town, it was full of anti-US and pro-Saddam graffiti and posters, with slogans like "Saddam is the pride of the Arabs" and "Death to the agents".

The US military said last month veteran leader Ibrahim was directly involved in attacks on US troops and put a $10 million ($15.66 million) bounty on his head. A reward of $25 million is still on offer for information leading to the capture or death of Saddam.

Ibrahim is sixth on the US list of Iraqi fugitives. All in the top five except Saddam have been killed or captured.

A Kirkuk city official said US forces mounted the sweep on Hawija after information from one of Ibrahim's wives, captured earlier this month, suggested he was there.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq