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Iraq

Weeklong campaign ends against insurgent haven

OBEIDI, Iraq - The U.S. military wrapped up a major offensive in a remote desert region near the Syrian border Saturday, saying it had cleaned out the insurgent haven and killed more than 125 militants during the weeklong campaign against followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during Operation Matador - one of the largest American campaigns since militants were driven from Fallujah six months ago. The number of civilian casualties was not immediately known.

American troops, backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships, swept through desert outposts along ancient smuggling routes, believed to be staging areas for foreign fighters who slip over the border and collect weapons to launch deadly attacks in Iraq's major cities.

More than 1,000 Marines, soldiers and sailors participated in the operation that began May 7, killing more than 125 insurgents, wounding many others and detaining 39 "of intelligence value," the military said in a statement. It provided no further information about the detainees.

Numerous weapons caches containing machine guns, mortar rounds and rockets were discovered. Six car bombs and material for making other improvised explosive devises were also found, the statement said.

The military said the operation confirmed its intelligence about a region north of the Euphrates River, including the existence of "cave complexes" used by insurgents in the nearby escarpment. It did not elaborate, but said U.S. and Iraqi forces would be back.

Pentagon officials conceded that the insurgents were better trained and equipped than previously thought. Insurgents killed six Marines in one squad when their troop transporter hit a bomb near Karabilah on Wednesday.

The U.S. military said the seven-day operation "neutralized" an insurgent sanctuary. But in Qaim, the town where the campaign began, masked fighters armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades remained in plain sight just 24 hours earlier, setting up checkpoints and vowing to defend the town if U.S. forces return.

Thousands of people fled the area during the offensive, pitching flimsy tents or seeking shelter in schools and mosques in nearby towns.

The military denied resident reports that they had been without water and electricity in some areas since the offensive began.

"Throughout the course of the operation, Marines strove to ensure the well-being of the local Iraqi citizens," the statement said. "According to commanders in the area, the Marines were greeted with greater hospitality from local villagers than is normally encountered."

The U.S. assault came amid a surge of militant attacks that have killed more than 450 people in just over two weeks since Iraq's first democratically elected government was announced.

At least 13 more Iraqis died Saturday in a series of ambushes and bombings. They included a senior Iraqi Foreign Ministry official slain in a drive-by shooting outside his Baghdad home Saturday night, police said. Three bystanders were also injured in the attack that killed Jassim Mohammed Ghani, a director general in the ministry, police Capt. Talib Thamer said.

Elsewhere Saturday, U.S. airstrikes destroyed two unoccupied buildings near Fallujah that the military identified as an insurgent command center, weapons storage site, detention and possible torture facility. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties in the attack, about 40 miles west of the Iraqi capital.

Meanwhile, arrest warrants have been issued against two former Cabinet ministers as the new government cracks down on corruption, according to officials in the office of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and his party.

Former Transport Minister Louei Hatim Sultan al-Aris was charged with "administrative corruption," while former Labor Minister Leila Abdul-Latif was accused of "financial corruption" and bringing back into the government members of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime, said Jawad al-Maliki, a senior member of Jaafari's Dawa Party.

Aris' whereabouts are unknown, but Abdul-Latif remains in the country, he said.

A 30-year-old detainee held as a "security threat" at southeastern Iraq's Camp Bucca prison died of a heart attack Saturday, the U.S. military said. An investigation is under way into his death, the military said. Camp Bucca holds more than 6,000 Iraqi detainees.

[Last modified May 15, 2005, 01:22:06]