- "America's deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage,
admitted during a visit to Baghdad that Iraq was still a war zone."
-
- BAGHDAD -- American warplanes
bombed suspected Iraqi guerrilla hideouts in their first air attack since
President George W Bush declared major combat over in May, as a senior
US official said the situation inside Iraq was now "pretty close to
war".
-
- The sharp escalation of the American military campaign
against the growing Iraqi insurgency came in swift response to the death
of six soldiers killed when a Black Hawk helicopter was shot down on Friday.
It was the third helicopter brought down within three weeks.
-
- F-16 fighter-bombers swooped over Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's
home city, dropping 500lb bombs near the site of the crash. The air attack
was quickly followed by ground assaults involving troops backed by Abrams
tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, who destroyed several farmhouses thought
to be used by pro-Saddam fighters.
-
- About 16 Iraqis were detained and five killed, including
an Iraqi man spotted trying to set a booby trap for American soldiers.
US commanders said the attack, Operation Ivy Cyclone, was designed as "a
show of force".
-
- As the attack unfolded, America's deputy secretary of
state, Richard Armitage, admitted during a visit to Baghdad that Iraq was
still a war zone.
-
- "We are involved in an insurgency, and that's pretty
close to war," he said. American forces had "a very solid plan
to go out and get these people who are killing us and killing Iraqis,"
he added.
-
- Further signs of the worsening security in parts of Iraq
came as the International Committee of the Red Cross announced that it
was temporarily closing its offices in Baghdad and Basra, in response to
the increasing risk to its staff - 12 of whom were killed in a car bomb
attack on its Baghdad headquarters last month.
-
- The move came despite a plea by Colin Powell, the US
Secretary of State, for international organisations to remain in Iraq.
Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the ICRC, said: "We are still discussing
what to do with our foreign staff. The situation is extremely dangerous
and volatile."
-
- Meanwhile, two American soldiers were killed when a home-made
bomb exploded near their Bradley armoured vehicle close to Fallujah, 40
miles west of Baghdad, bringing the total of US soldiers killed in action
in Iraq to 149.
-
- The US army said it had arrested a dozen suspects for
the rocket attack on the Baghdad hotel which nearly killed Paul Wolfowitz,
America's deputy defence secretary.
-
- Troops acting on tip-offs seized 12 of the 18-strong
gang believed to have fired a salvo of rockets at the Al Rasheed hotel
two weeks ago, during overnight raids in west Baghdad.
-
- Brigadier General Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st
Armoured Division, said the suspects detained for alleged involvement in
the Al Rasheed attack appeared to be Saddam loyalists, rather than foreign
terrorists.
-
- The audacious attack killed one US army colonel and only
narrowly missed the room occupied by Mr Wolfowitz. Those arrested included
an alleged financier, a missile supplier and other operatives. Cash totalling
$10,000 was also found in the home of the suspected ringleader.
-
- Mr Powell vowed that the attacks on US troops - which
have killed 27 in the past seven days - would not lead to an American pull-out.
"We are trying to end US military presence in Iraq as quickly as possible,
but we will not turn our back and run away due to the difficult security
situation," he told the Saudi al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper.
-
- Elsewhere in the region, the British Embassy in Bahrain
warned of danger of terrorist attacks against Western targets in the country.
"We judge that there is a high threat from terrorism against Western,
including British, targets. We are particularly concerned about potential
threats to places where Westerners might gather," said a statement.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/09/wirq09
.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/09/ixnewstop.html
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