US troops facing revenge attacks

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CatoCooper13

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AP - The commander of the US-led coalition in Iraq said in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday that US forces, already under heavy pressure from guerrilla-style operations by resistance fighters, now face revenge attacks from ordinary Iraqis angered by the continuing American occupation.

North of Baghdad, there were at least three separate attacks on US forces with roadside bombs in less than 1 1/2 hours. Witnesses reported injured soldiers, but details were unclear. The attacks hit US Humvees about 20 kilometres north of Baghdad near al-Taji.

While US forces increasingly patrol Iraqi hotspots with American-trained local militiamen, citizens voice growing anger with tactics that are seen as heavy-handed and insensitive to Iraqi social and religious customs.

"We have seen that when we have an incident in the conduct of our operations, when we killed an innocent civilian, based on their ethic, their values, their culture, they would seek revenge," Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez was quoted as telling The Times newspaper in London.

Coalition forces were seeking "to ensure that when a mistake has been made and when we have inadvertently wound up killing someone that we go and do the right thing culturally to take care of those families." The Times' report did not elaborate on those steps.

Sanchez's remarks came after the friendly fire killing late last week of eight Iraqi policemen by American soldiers near Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad. The military and the US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, have apologised.

Six people claiming to be Americans and two who say they are British are in US custody on suspicion of involvement in attacks on coalition forces, an American general said. They would be the first Westerners reported held in the insurrection against the US-led occupation.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who is in charge of coalition detention centres in Iraq, said they were considered security detainees, meaning they were suspected of involvement in guerrilla attacks. She did not identify them but said they were being interrogated by military intelligence in Baghdad, where they were being held.

"We actually do have six who are claiming to be Americans, two who are claiming to be from the UK. We're continuing the interviewing process. The details become sketchy and their story changes," Karpinski said.

She said there were "several ... hundred third-country nationals in custody."

When pressed for details about those being held, she declined to give any other information.

"We're not trying to withhold information from you. Some information remains classified for security reasons," Karpinski said during a tour of Abu Ghraib prison, where Saddam Hussein once locked up his political opponents.

Asked about the detainees at a Pentagon news conference, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "The truth is that the folks that we've scooped up have, on a number of occasions, multiple identifications from different countries. They're quite skilled at confusing people as to what their real nationality is or where they came from or what they're doing."

Rumsfeld said he had no additional information on the detainees.

The British government said it was investigating the claims.

"We are urgently following up the reports," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. She would not confirm whether the United States had informed British officials of the arrests.

If Westerners are actively involved in the resistance, it would deepen confusion about what groups are involved. Initially, the guerrilla fighters were thought to be Saddam loyalists, but in recent weeks US officials have said they are being joined by foreign fighters, possibly members of the al-Qaeda terror network.

The revelation recalls the capture of John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan, where the American fought alongside Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Lindh was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to supplying services to the Taliban militia, which ruled Afghanistan and was ousted by a US-led coalition.

In December 2001, British citizen Richard Reid, a member of al-Qaeda, was arrested after trying to light explosives hidden in his shoes on a Paris-to-Miami flight. Reid pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

American troops in Afghanistan also captured Yaser Esam Hamdi, who was flown to the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and held there for several months until it was discovered he was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was held in the naval brig in Norfolk, Virginia, then transferred in late July to a jail at the Charleston Naval Weapons Station in South Carolina.

At least nine Britons are being detained in Guantanamo, where some 660 men from 42 countries are being held on suspicion of links to the Taliban or al-Qaeda. None of the men has been charged and some have been held for nearly two years without access to lawyers.

Lieutenant Colonel Pamela Hart, a spokeswoman for the mission in Guantanamo, said that none of the detainees being held there were captured in Iraq.


©AAP 2003
 
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