BAGHDAD (AP) - About 600 U.S. soldiers launched an air assault south of Baghdad on Friday, targeting militants believed to be involved in the May kidnapping of three American soldiers, the military said. The raids took place around 4 a.m. in the villages of Owesap and Betra, about 12 miles south of the Iraqi capital. "These are areas where we believe al-Qaida was staging attacks, and we also believe they have ties to the May 12th attack," said Maj. Alayne Conway, spokeswoman for the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
Three U.S. soldiers were kidnapped after their patrol was ambushed May 12 near Mahmudiyah, also south of Baghdad. Four other Americans and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack, and an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility. Two soldiers remain missing, and the body of the third was found in the Euphrates River nearly two weeks later.
On Friday, two Chinook helicopters and eight Black Hawks dropped 600 U.S. troops into the targeted area, Conway said. F-16 fighter jets then dropped two bombs on an island in the Euphrates, to "deny the enemy terrain to escape," she said. Some 150 Iraqi soldiers also participated in the operation, Conway said. By midday Friday, there were no casualties on either side, she added.
Iraqi police said eight al-Qaida fighters were killed in a separate incident in a Shiite village near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Shiite townspeople, backed by police, drove the Sunni militants out of the village and killed eight of them, police said.