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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraqis claim the capture of 16 terrorist chiefs |
| 2004-09-13 |
| THE Iraqi interim government last night claimed that 16 foreign terrorist leaders had been captured in a massive operation in Baghdad which came after a day of violence which claimed at least 25 lives. Security appeared to spiral out of control in the Iraqi capital, with at least 104 people also reported to be wounded in explosions and barrages across the city. Many of the dead were killed when a US helicopter fired on a disabled US Bradley fighting vehicle as Iraqis swarmed around it, cheering, throwing stones and waving the black and yellow sunburst banner of Iraq's most feared terror organisation. But interim prime minister Ayad Allawi said that the Iraqi government remains determined to defeat terrorism and said he was confident that security problems would not hinder plans to hold elections early next year. Speaking at the end of a day touring Basra and nearby Umm Qasr, Mr Allawi said: "We are determined to dismantle any militias and people operating outside the law. We are adamant that we are going to defeat terrorism. We intend to confront them and bring them to justice." Asked about the day's events in Baghdad, he said 16 "outlaws" had been arrested in a clearing operation around the Haifa Street area of the city, a notorious trouble hotspot. A government minister described the men as "leaders of foreign fighters." During the day Mr Allawi visited a polling station for local elections in the town of Umm Qasr, only the second such election to be held since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |