U.S. occupation soldiers are getting tough on Iraqis

BAGHDAD, December 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A barrage of  explosions interspersed with loud automatic fire echoed across Baghdad early Wednesday, December 24, after the U.S. occupation troops unleashed the most ferocious operation in months to crack down hard on Iraqi resistance fighters.

Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and 20 others injured when a booby-trapped car went off in front of interior ministry offices in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil Wednesday. The explosion happened at 11:50 am (0850 GMT).

The Baghdad explosions, louder than mortars, began about 12:30 am (2130 GMT) and continued intermittently for about 20 minutes, sometimes interspersed with bursts of automatic fire, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

A propeller-driven plane flew low over the city during the firing, which seemed to be coming from the south of the city.

The most intense military activity in the capital for weeks may be related to an operation known as "Iron Justice" and "may involve explosions and aerial activity," a military spokeswoman said.

"That would be aircraft, air support," she said when asked to explain what "aerial activity" meant.

About six explosions like loud thumps in the distance, each several seconds apart, had sounded across the city just after 11:00 pm (2000 GMT). More than two hours earlier witnesses had reported flashes of light in the sky and explosions in one district of the capital.

In intense activity in Iraq's northern capital of Mosul on Tuesday, December 23, U.S. forces arrested a childhood friend of Saddam Hussein's number-two, accused by the U.S. of being the masterminds of the deadly anti-U.S. resistance operations, according to Iraqi police and relatives.

The aide to Izzat Ibrahim was identified as Sheikh Ghazi Hanash, head of the influential Tayy tribe.

He was detained at his Mosul home along with three of his sons, said Hanash's relatives and Waadallah Tewfik Hassan, an Iraqi Civil Defense Corps member who participated in the raid.

A firefight ensued that killed one of the sheikh's bodyguards and wounded his daughter.

Following Saddam's arrest on December 13, Ibrahim, who suffers from leukemia, is the most-senior former Iraqi official still wanted by U.S. occupation authorities.

Despite Saddam's arrest 10 days ago and a major military sweep to round up suspected fighters, anti-U.S. operations went non-stop.

A private security guard was wounded Tuesday when Iraqi fighters ambushed a U.S. military convoy delivering new Iraqi money to a bank in Mosul.

A rocket-propelled grenade hit a Humvee, wounding an employee from Global Security, which is under contract to the occupation to accompany shipments of the new currency around Iraq, said Major Hugh Cate of the 101st Aiborne Division.

Two soldiers from the 1st Armored Division and their Iraqi interpreter were killed Monday when their convoy struck a roadside bomb in Baghdad.