U.S. occupation forces detained 60 people during the sweep

BAGHDAD, June 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – U.S. occupation forces detained more than 60 people in a new sweep that began on Sunday, June 29, to suppress resistance to the U.S. occupation presence in Iraq.

The ‘Desert Sidewinder Operation’ included more than 20 simultaneous raids involving aircraft, armored vehicles and infantry in an area north of the capital, Baghdad, along the River Tigris.

It comes on the heels of Operation Desert Scorpion launched on June 15 to root out the guerrilla fighters who have now killed 23 U.S. soldiers since U.S. President George W. Bush declared victory in the Iraq invasion on May 1.

So far, ‘Desert Sidewinder’, being carried out by the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse, has also netted in the raids weapons and military documents believed to relate to the former regime, the U.S. military said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The raids target former Baath Party loyalists, terrorists suspected of perpetrating attacks against U.S. forces and former Iraqi military leaders, and to locate weapons and ammunition caches," the statement said.

The U.S. forces claim Saddam loyalists are conducting a campaign of sabotage, blowing up fuel pipelines and stripping power cables, to turn the tide against the Americans.

The raids unfolded around Samarra, which lies between the capital and Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, a stronghold of Sunni Muslims.

Spokeswoman Sergeant Amy Abbott described Sidewinder as "a very important operation to rid us of Baath party loyalists and terrorists," while declining to say where exactly the sweep was being carried out.

No U.S. casualties were reported in the raids, Abbott added, declining to say whether any Iraqis had been killed or wounded.

U.S. forces believe capturing Saddam, who disappeared in early April 2003 with Baghdad about to fall, is key to ending the sabotage campaign which has prevented its occupation forces from getting oil flowing and delayed the return of power to the country.

"I think the chances of catching Saddam are very high. We will catch him," the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, told the BBC Sunday. "I think it is important that we do that, that we capture or kill him."

In another statement, Central Command said 15 people were arrested in Mosul, in northern Iraq, on Saturday, June 28. Documents, weapons and Republican Guard uniforms were confiscated in the raids, the BBC reported.

Mosul came under heavy bombardment by the U.S. and British warplanes, leaving scores of civilians dead and others injured. Twenty-one residents of the town were killed and 75 wounded in U.S.-British bombing on April 2.

In flashpoint Falluja, U.S. soldiers have been confiscating motorbikes, apparently to prevent guerrilla-style resistance attacks.

U.S. troops suspect many of the attacks against them have been carried out using motorbikes, an Iraqi police officer said.

The attacks were triggered after U.S. soldiers shot dead 15 people at a demonstration in which the local inhabitants called on the occupation forces to pack up and leave.

Many observers said that the reason for these attacks should be attributed to the U.S. military inaction to restore the situation back to normal more than two months since the end of the invasion on April 9 as well as failure to find alleged weapons of mass destruction, the main justification for launching the invasion on the oil-rich country.

The U.S. and British forces have not found any of Iraq's alleged banned weapons program since trundling into, raising speculations that Washington and London might have "doctored" evidence of them.

Iraqis are furious that the U.S. forces have not make good on their promises to improve their situation, restore order and address growing unemployment rates to the war-impoverished country.

Most Iraqis were also further outraged as Bremer took the decision to cancel elections which would have set up a national representative government after the ouster of Saddam.