Convoy attacked

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

U.S. Convoy Is Ambushed in Iraq, Wounding Several Soldiers
By REUTERS

Filed at 3:34 p.m. ET

NEAR BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Guerrillas ambushed a U.S. convoy in the
hostile region north of Baghdad Sunday, wounding several soldiers, as a new
U.S. mission was launched to hunt for Saddam Hussein loyalists blamed for
recent attacks.

A crippled U.S. truck smoldered on the highway south of the restive town of
Balad after the ambush, its tires and canopy ablaze. Apache helicopters
buzzed overhead, searching for the attackers. Tanks and armored vehicles
surrounded the truck. Troops trained their guns at the fields around the road.

Soldiers said several casualties had been evacuated.

They said the convoy had been traveling from Baghdad to Balad, about 90 km
(60 miles) to the north. It was attacked about 20 km south of Balad.

The ambush came as the U.S. military launched a new mission, Operation
Desert Scorpion, to root out Saddam loyalists after a spate of attacks that
have killed about 40 U.S. soldiers since major combat was declared over on
May 1.

The new U.S. military sweep followed last week's Operation Peninsula Strike
-- the biggest such U.S. maneuver in Iraq since May 1 -- when a series of
raids were mounted in the fertile plains around Balad near the Tigris river.

The army said in a statement Friday that it had killed 27 Iraqis who
ambushed a tank patrol near Balad, but a military spokesman later said he
could not confirm the death toll. Locals said five civilians had been
killed in the incident.

The U.S. military has said that some 400 Iraqis were detained in the
operation around Balad, which began last Monday and was winding down by the
weekend. It said about 60 were still in custody, and four U.S. soldiers
were wounded during the operation, along with two Iraqi ``hostile civilians.''

Angry locals said U.S. troops had ransacked houses and assaulted residents.
They said the operation would only serve to fuel hostility toward the U.S.
occupiers of Iraq.


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