U.S. forces watch a covered body of a killed Iraqi civilian

TIKRIT, August 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The U.S. occupation forces launched a new search operation in Baghdad detaining many inhabitants , as three Iraqis were killed in an attack on an American convoy in the restive capital late Monday, August 11. 

Up to 2,000 American soldiers backed by Apache helicopters and Abrams tanks launched the pre-dawn raid on two sleepy villages where they suspected pro-Saddam Hussein guerrillas were hiding, the U.S. army said.

"Ivy Lightning is the fifth in a series of operations targeting regime loyalists, looking for weapon caches and basically trying to disrupt any subversive elements planning attacks on coalition forces," spokeswoman Major Josslyn Aberle said here.

Previous operations aimed at stamping out resistance allegedly from Saddam loyalists have led to hundreds of detentions and the seizing of a range of weapons.

"We had intelligence that pointed to some activities in two remote villages where we did not have any military presence ... for any long time," Aberle was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying, naming one of the villages as Ain-Alin.

A "large number" of Iraqis were being questioned after the operation, which combined mechanized infantry units using Bradley fighting vehicles, armored battalions using M1-Abrams tanks, as well as Kiowa Warrior, Apache and Blackhawk helicopters, said Aberle.

She added there had been no casualties and no reports of resistance in the ongoing operation.

Ivy Lightning differed from earlier U.S. military operations to weed out resistance to the occupying forces in that it would be "surgical" in nature, instead of the wide sweeps previously carried out, said Aberle.

The U.S. forces had launched Operation Peninsula Strike, Operation Desert Scorpion and Operation Desert Sidewinder and Ivy Serpent under the pretext of "crushing the remnants of Saddam's hardened intelligence and security services".

The U.S. military spokeswoman said the Monday operation was "designed to move quickly with overwhelming force, in an area that may not be easily accessible or have a full-time coalition presence."

Local inhabitants had been furious over the U.S. military incursions into their areas, detaining many of residents and carrying out intrusive house-to-house searches in a humiliating provocative way.

The Monday operation came against statements by chief U.S. military commander in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez last week that the U.S. occupation forces decided to scale down its raids on Iraqis and house-to-house searches, admitting that this "iron-fisted" approach has proved counterproductive and alienated the people of Iraq.

Sanchez said he got the message clear from Iraqi leaders who support the U.S. forces, he said, so "when you take a father in front of his family and put a bag over his head and put him on the ground, you have had a significant adverse effect on his dignity and respect in the eyes of his family."

General Sanchez said the message from the Iraqis was that in doing this, you create more enemies than you capture.

Hundreds of suspects were detained, but many were released for lack of evidence. Numerous large weapons caches were discovered, but the attacks against Americans continued – almost on a daily basis.

Fresh Attacks

In the meanwhile, U.S. soldiers said three Iraqis died after an American convoy was attacked with a grenade, according to Reuters news agency.

One bloodstained body lay at the scene with at least three bullet wounds. Weeping relatives knelt down to kiss the corpse, it added.

An American soldier said the Iraqis involved in the attack had been chased down and shot. Locals said the dead were innocent bystanders, and accused U.S. troops of firing wildly.

Three other soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attack Monday near the town of Shumayt, north of Tikrit.

Also on Monday, six huge explosions rocked a U.S. military base in Ramadi, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, as mysterious assailants fired on the compound, an eyewitness said.

Faras Mustafa, 34, said he saw smoke rising from the base after the blasts.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. army, but earlier Monday, Colonel Guy Shields, the U.S. top military spokesman, said the base in Ramadi had come under repeated mortar attack the previous few nights.

Fifty-six U.S. soldiers have died in guerrilla attacks since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. One American soldier was killed and two soldiers were wounded Sunday night in a bomb blast in Baquba, a restive town northeast of Baghdad.

Washington blame Saddam loyalists for the attack. But observers said that steadily growing anti-American sentiments among Iraqis jeering for an end to occupation and slow pace of development could have sparked off the unorganized resistance attacks.

Four masked men identifying themselves as Iraqi resistance group said in a video tape aired on Sunday, August 10, resistance has no link with Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, and vowed to drive the occupation forces out of the oil-rich country.