Iraq: US troops, helicopters and jets carried out an eight-hour operation west of Baghdad yesterday after one US soldier was killed and three wounded in two ambushes.
An Iraqi resident of Khaldiya said many tanks and other vehicles were destroyed.
In separate raids to the north, around Saddam Hussein's home town, Tikrit, troops of the 4th Infantry Division said they had arrested 92 suspects and seized weapons. These raids appeared to be in response to an ambush earlier this month in Tikrit in which three soldiers were killed.
"The people we went after are the trigger-pullers attacking the coalition," said Lieut-Col David Poirier, commander of the 720th Military Police Battalion, who led the joint raids with 200 newly retrained Iraqi police officers in Tikrit and other northern areas.
"We want to send the message that if you pull the trigger on the coalition, we will get you."
The two attacks about 60 miles west of Baghdad, near Khaldiya, each involved roadside bombs detonated as military convoys passed. Gunmen then attacked the vehicles with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire.
Within minutes, dozens of armoured vehicles had converged on the rural al-Qurtan area, north of Khaldiya. For eight hours, the US troops fired on farmhouses. Four attack helicopters circled overhead, firing at targets on the ground, and strike jets flew low over the area.
"Many tanks and vehicles were destroyed with the rockets," said Abbas Mahtar, an Iraqi from Khaldiya who saw the attacks.
"The Americans called in reinforcements to rescue their injured. Then the Iraqi resistance attacked these extra troops. There was heavy fighting. It was the biggest attack we have seen here against the Americans."
It was unclear if the US suffered more casualties. Several ambulances and medical helicopters were seen in the area and residents insisted that dozens of soldiers had been killed or wounded.
They said an Iraqi woman was killed in the shooting and five people were wounded. At least 14 men were arrested.
US soldiers blocked a bridge across the Euphrates leading to al-Qurtan. When troops left, the villagers found many of their homes badly damaged.
Crowds gathered at two houses which had been hit several times by heavy machine-gun fire and rockets. Abid Ahmed Shibab (40), who was in one of the houses when the tanks opened fire, said: "They were shooting everywhere. They were just trying to provoke us - to harm us. We are not the resistance." He said the owner of the house, Salah Hassan, who ran a small building company, had been arrested, together with his son and a cousin.
"They had no link to the former regime. They had no link to any operation against the Americans," he added.
Since the regime fell in April, US troops have been come under attack dozens of times west and north of Baghdad. On Sunday, six soldiers were injured in Fallujawhen their convoy hit a roadside bomb. - (Guardian Service)