BAQUBA (Iraq), Nov 18: US forces used bombs, mortars and artillery to try to break guerilla resistance in Iraq on Tuesday while President George W. Bush and his secretary of state sought help in Europe for their troubled campaign.
The US army’s 4th Infantry Division said F-15 and F-16 jets had dropped a dozen 500-pound bombs on targets in the heaviest night of air bombardment in its sector in north-central Iraq since the official end of major combat on May 1.
In Baghdad, a rapid series of deep booms shook the city after sunset as forces from the US 1st Armoured Division used tanks and aeroplanes to hammer suspected insurgent positions, a US military spokesman said.
The bombings were part of stepped-up operations this month by US forces in the country responding to an escalation in the insurgency against them that has killed at least 177 US soldiers in just over six months.
As the United States faced continuing guerilla opposition in Iraq, President George W. Bush arrived in London on a damage-control mission to tell increasingly sceptical Britons there were times when the use of military force was necessary.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been Bush’s staunchest ally over Iraq, but the US leader — carefully enclosed in a protective “bubble” in a huge security operation — also faces massive protests in London over the war and occupation of Iraq.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in Brussels for a meeting with European Union foreign ministers, has appealed to Europe to forget past differences and help rebuild Iraq.
SADDAM AIDE: In Iraq, the US military said it had new information that Izzat Ibrahim, one of Saddam Hussein’s most feared lieutenants, was involved in some of the attacks on occupying troops. It said it was getting closer to seizing him every day.
Underlining the gravity of the security situation in Iraq, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was noncommittal on whether political staff would return to Baghdad soon. He said they might operate from outside the country.
But he did pledge to name a replacement soon for his special representative Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was among 22 people killed when their Iraq headquarters was bombed on August 19.
In Baquba, some 60 km north of Baghdad, two F-15 fighters flew from the Gulf state of Qatar to drop four bombs on farmhouses and other sites suspected to have been used by guerillas.
“We had taken action on these targets before, but this is to demonstrate one more time that we have significant firepower and we can use it at our discretion,” said ground commander Lieutenant Colonel Mark Young of the 4th Infantry Division.
Operation coordinators said two men with assault rifles fled from the target site buildings in the middle of a field.
“One killed, one got away,” the voice of a soldier crackled over the radio after asking permission to shoot.—Reuters