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Iraq insurgents take another hit

Iraqi officials say increasingly good intelligence exposes a training camp, where 85 insurgents die in a raid.

BAGHDAD - The squad of Iraqi commandos was homing in on what they thought was a militant hideout in central Iraq, when residents pointed them toward a different target - a remote, marshy camp on the shores of Lake Tharthar, a U.S. Army spokesman said Wednesday.

At noon, 85 militants at the training camp were killed in one of the worst guerrilla death tolls of the two-year insurgency, Iraqi officials said. They said citizens emboldened by the January elections increasingly were turning in intelligence tips.

The Tuesday commando raid, backed by U.S. air and ground fire, turned up booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents, Iraqi Maj. Gen. Rashid Feleih told state television. He said the insurgents included Iraqis, Filipinos, Algerians, Moroccans, Afghans and Arabs from neighboring countries. It appeared to be the largest guerrilla training camp to be discovered in the war.

"What's really remarkable is that the citizens really took the initiative to provide us with very good information," Feleih said.

Before the invasion, Lake Tharthar was popular with Iraqi tourists.

In three days, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials' accounts, troops have killed at least 128 insurgents.

"This string of successes does have positive repercussions in that it may convince Iraqis not supporting the insurgents - but not supporting the United States either - to perceive that the tide is turning and not go with the insurgents," said Nora Bensahel, a Washington-based Iraq analyst.

The U.S. military declined Wednesday to confirm the Iraqi government's death toll of 85 militants. That would make the raid the heaviest hit militants have taken since the opening days of the U.S.-led attack in November on Fallujah, where more than 1,000 insurgents died.

Iraqi commandos were in the area to conduct a different raid, but tips from residents redirected them to the camp, Goldenberg said.

Iraqi officials also credited other successes to intelligence from citizens heartened by Jan. 30 elections and emboldened by film footage that shows captured insurgents confessing their roles in attacks.

Kadhim said that insurgents initially operated in small cells but that crackdowns have caused them to gather in larger groups.

Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

Battles that have killed large numbers of Iraqi insurgents over the past few days:

SUNDAY: Dozens of insurgents ambush a U.S. convoy near the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad, and 26 militants are killed in the resulting gunbattle. Eight others are taken into custody.

MONDAY: Militants ambush a convoy of security officials in Mosul, sparking a gunbattle that left 17 dead and 14 injured, according to Iraqi police. No security forces were hurt.

TUESDAY: Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. troops, raid a suspected insurgent training camp near Lake Tharthar, 60 miles north of Ramadi, leaving 85 militants dead, according to Iraqi officials. At least seven Iraqi commandos were killed.

[Last modified March 24, 2005, 01:21:06]